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TENEMENT  HOUSE  REFORM  IN 
NEW  YORK,  1834-1900. 


PREPARED   FOR 


The  Tenement  House   Commission  of  1900 


BY 


LAWRENCE  VEILLER,  Secretary, 


COPYRIGHT  MAY,   1900,  BY  LAWRENCE  VEILLER. 


NEW  YORK: 
THE  EVENING  POST  JOB  PRINTING  HOUSE,  156  FULTON  STREET, 

(EVENING  POST  BUILDING.) 
1900. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

The  First  Legislative  Commission — 1856 8 

Neglect  and  Greed  tlie  Eeal  Cause  of  Bad  Conditions 10 

Licensing  of  Tenement  Houses  Urged 12 

The  Movement  of  1864— Council  of  Hygiene 14 

The  First  Tenement  House  Law— 1867 17 

The  Movement  of  1879— Mr.  White's  Model  Tenements 21 

The  New  Tenement  House  Law— 1879 25 

The  Tenement  House  Competition  1879— The  "Dumb-Bell" 

Plan 26 

The  Second  Legislative  Commission — 1884 28 

The  Law  Amended  in  1887 31 

The  Work  of  Jacob  A.  Eiis 31 

The  Third  Legislative  Commission— 1894 32 

The  Tenement  House  Act  of  1895 35 

The  Model  Tenement  Competition  of  1896— The  City  &  Suburban 

Homes  Company 36 

The  Movement  of  1899— Charity  Organization  Society 38 

The  Tenement  House  Exhibition  of  1900 41 

Poverty  and  Disease 44 

The  Model  Tenement  Competition  of  1900 46 


164288 


105  EAST  22D  STREET,  NEW  YORK  CITY, 

MAY  8,  1900. 
Mr.  ROBERT  W.  de  FOREST,  Chairman, 

Tenement  House  Commission. 

DEAR  SIR, — In  accordance  with  the  resolution  of  the 
Tenement  House  Commission,  of  April  26th,  I  beg  to 
transmit  herewith  a  history  of  the  movement  for  tene- 
ment house  reform  in  New  York. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

LAWRENCE  VEILLER, 

Secretary, 
Tenement  House  Commission. 


TENEMENT  HOUSE  REFORM  IN  NEW  YORK. 


The  movement  for  housing  reform  in  New  York  dates 
back  as  far  as  1834,  when  Gerrett  Forbes,  the  City  In- 
spector of  the  Board  of  Health,  in  his  annual  report  giving 
the  record  of  burials  or  deaths,  called  attention  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  tenement  houses  at  that  time. 

The  first  attempt,  however,  to  give  any  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  condition  of  the  dwellings  of  the  poorer  classes 
in  New  York  City  was  not  made  until  1842,  when  Dr. 
John  H.  Griscom,  the  City  Inspector  of  the  Board  of 
Health,  called  attention  to  the  existing  conditions.] 
Prior  to  this  time,  the  City  Inspector  had  contented  him- 
self with  simply  reporting  the  various  statistics  available 
as  to  the  number  of  deaths  occurring  during  the  year,  their 
causes,  and  the  ages  of  the  people  among  whom  the  deaths 
occurred,  with  a  few  brief  remarks  explanatory  of  the 
statistics.  Dr.  Griscom,  however,  in  addition  to  this 
formal  report  submitted  a  pamphlet  of  eighteen  printed 
pages  entitled  "  A  Brief  View  of  the  Sanitary  Condition 
of  the  City."  In  it  he  calls  attention  to  the  great  increase 
of  population  in  the  city  in  1810  and  again  in  1838,  by  a 
horde  of  ignorant  immigrants  who  arrived  here  generally 
penniless,  and  who  brought  with  them  disease  and  misery. 
To  this  sudden  increase  of  the  city's  population  and  the 
subsequent  herding  of  these  people  in  large  numbers  in 
the  poorer  quarters  of  the  city  was  largely  due  the 
beginning  of  bad  housing  conditions  in  New  York. 

Dr.  Griscom's  report  dwells  upon  the  crowded  condition, 
and  the  insufficient  ventilation  of  a  great  number  of  the 
dwellings  in  the  city,  also  the  fact  that  a  large  part  of  the 
population  lived  in  cellars  and  basements,  and  in  courts 
and  alleys,  he  pointing  out  that  there  were  then  1,459  cel- 
lars being  used  as  places  of  residence  by  7,196  persons,  and 


that  there  were  as  many  as  6,618  different  families  living 
in  courts  or  rear  buildings.  The  grave  moral  evils  resulting 
from  the  indiscriminate  mingling  of  the  sexes  in  the  same 
room  are  dwelt  upon,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  the  causes 
of  uncleanliness,  poverty  and  sickness  were  not  so  much 
to  be  found  in  the  "  innate  depravity  "  of  the  people  as  in 
the  environment  in  which  they  were  compelled  to  live. 

He  urged  that  the  City  Legislature  should  prohibit  the 
use  of  cellars  as  dwellings,  and  that  the  owner  or  lessee  of 
every  tenement  house  should  be  required  to  keep  the  out- 
door and  indoor  premises  free  and  clean  from  everything 
likely  to  prove  injurious  to  health,  and  that  an  immediate 
stop  should  be  put  to  the  practice  of  crowding  so  many 
human  beings  in  such  limited  spaces,  arguing  that  if 
there  were  any  propriety  in  the  law  requiring  ocean 
vessels  to  carry  only ,  a  certain  number  of  people,  there 
was  equal  propriety  in  requiring  that  only  a  certain  num- 
ber of  persons  should  occupy  houses  of  this  kind;  and 
that,  if  a  law  regulating  the  construction  of  buildings 
in  reference  to  fire  was  justifiable,  one  respecting  the  pro- 
tection of  the  inmates  from  the  influences  of  badly 
arranged  houses  and  apartments  should  be  enacted. 

In  1846  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of 
the  Poor,  a  charitable  society  organized  in  1843,  took  up 
the  question  of  the  housing  of  the  poor  people  of  the  city, 
maintaining  that  bad  housing  was  the  main  cause  of  most 
of  the  poverty  and  sickness  that  existed. 

In  1853  they  appointed  a  special  committee  "  to  inquire 
into  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  the 
practicability  of  devising  measures  for  .the  comfort  and 
healthfulness  of  their  habitations."  This  Committee  rend- 
ered a  report  of  thirty-two  printed  pages  in  the  fall  of 
1853,  which  was  published  in  the  annual  report  of  the 
Association  for  that  year.  The  state  of  affairs  disclosed 
by  their  investigations  was  one  which  called  for  prompt 
and  effective  remedies,  and  its  effect  on  the  public  mind 
should  have  been  great,  for  it  brought  to  light  the  gravest 
social  evils. 


The  Committee,  after  making  an  examination  of  most 
of  the  tenement  houses  in  all  the  different  wards  of  the 
city,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  "the  dwellings  of  the 
industrious  class  in  New  York  were  not  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  human  beings  nor  compatible  with  the  health  or 
social  or  moral  improvement  of  the  occupants." 

Among  the  evils  which,  in  their  opinion,  were  respon- 
sible for  the  prevalence  of  bad  conditions  were  the  fol- 
lowing: 

1.  The  crowded  condition  of  the  dwellings  in  which  the 
poor  were  compelled  to  live. 

2.  Too  great  density  of  population  in  certain  districts. 

3.  Neglect   of  ventilation — a  prevailing  cause  of  ill- 
health. 

Nothing  contained  in  the  report  of  this  Committee  is  of 
greater  value  than  the  demonstration  of  the  principle  that 
"  the  number  of  persons  on  a  given  area  of  soil  cannot  be 
increased  beyond  a  certain  limit  without  endangering 
health." 

Considerable  attention  was  paid  to  underground  dwel- 
lings by  the  Committee,  it  being  pointed  out  that  in  1850 
there  were  18,456  persons  crowded  together  in  3,742 
cellars,  which  "  were  always  damp,  badly  ventilated, 
generally  filthy,  and  beds  of  pestilence  and  disease."  As  a 
remedy  for  all  these  evils  the  Committee  recommended 
that  capitalists  and  owners  of  real  estate  should  build 
model  tenements;  and  also  called  attention  to  the  necessity 
for  legislative  intervention,  stating  that  "these  crying 
evils  cannot  be  remedied  or  essentially  diminished  with- 
out special  legislative  action.  Pure  air,  light  and  water 
being  indispensable  to  health  and  life,  if  tenements  are  so 
badly  constructed  as  to  preclude  a  proper  supply  of  these 
essential  elements,  the  law  should  interpose  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  sufferers,  and  either  close  up  such  dwellings 
or  cause  them  to  be  so  remodeled  as  to  be  fit  for  human 
habitation." 

In  the  following  year  the  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor  made  a  sociological  study  of  tene- 


8 

ment  conditions  in  the  Eleventh  Ward  of  the  city,  report- 
ing the  number  of  inhabitants,  the  number  of  families, 
and  the  number  of  houses  occupied  by  one,  five,  ten  and 
twenty  families  respectively,  also  the  distribution  of 
nationality  at  that  time. 

In  the  following  year  they  organized  a  company  to 
build  a  model  tenement  known  as  the  "  Workmen's  Home 
Association"  This  Company  erected  a  large  building  in 
Mott  street,  which  unfortunately  was  not  "model,"  in 
many  respects,  and  later  became  one  of  the  worst  tene- 
ment houses  the  city  has  ever  seen. 

THE  FIRST  LEGISLATIVE  COMMISSION,    J856. 

One  result  of  the  disclosures  made  by  this  Association 
in  1853  was  the  appointment  by  the  State  Legislature  in 
1856  of  a  committee  of  their  own  members  "  to  make  an 
examination  of  the  manner  in  which  tenant  houses  are 
constructed  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  report  the  same 
to  the  Legislature,  and  also  what  legislation,  if  any,  is 
requisite  and  necessary  in  order  to  remedy  the  evils  and 
offer  full  protection  to  the  lives  and  health  of  the 
occupants  of  such  buildings.";  This  Committee,  con- 
sisting of  five  members  of  the  Assembly,  Mr.  A.  J.  H. 
Duganne,  John  M.  Reed,  Eli  Curtis,  William  J.  Shea  and 
Samuel  Brevoort,  visited  New  York  City  on  March  14th 
and  again  on  March  25th  of  that  year,  spending  altogether 
seven  days  in  a  personal  inspection  of  some  of  the  best 
known  tenant  houses  in  the  city. 

In  their  report  to  the  Legislature  made  on  April  4, 
1856,  they  stated  that  in  the  brief  time  allowed  them  for  the 
investigation  they  had  been  able  to  do  no  more  than  glance 
at  evils  of  such  magnitude  as  to  imperatively  demand  a 
thorough  and  searching  scrutiny,  and  asked  that  their 
Committee  be  continued  throughout  the  summer  so  that 
they  might  make  a  more  thorough  examination  of  the  evils 
disclosed  by  their  brief  investigation,  stating  that  the  ex- 
amination they  had  made  had  convinced  them  that  the 
evils  to  be  remedied  were  of  a  serious  nature  requiring  the 


attention  of  the  State  Legislature,  and  demanding  such 
action  at  the  hands  of  the  Assembly  as  would  secure  their 
ultimate  removal.  They  further  stated  that  *'  partial  re- 
turns rnnde  up  hurriedly  by  the  captains  of  the  police  for  the 
use  of  the  Committee  show  that  in  twenty-two  districts 
there  are  over  1,200  tenement  houses  of  the  very  lowest  de- 
scription occupied  by  no  less  than  ten  families  each.  In 
some  of  these,  as  many  as  YO  different  families  reside,  and 
into  a  few  over  100  families  are  crowded.  In  one  building, 
112  families  are  residing,  some  of  them  numbering  Sand  10 
members,  occupying  one  close  unventilated  apartment,  and 
others  huddle  indiscriminately  in  damp  foul  cellars,  to 
breath  the  air  of  which  is  to  inhale  disease.  Here,  in  its  very 
worst  aspect  are  to  be  seen  the  horrors  of  such  a  mode  of 
living.  Here  are  to  be  found  drunken  and  diseased  men 
and  women  lying  in  the  midst  of  their  impurity  and  filth; 
idiotic  and  crippled  children  suffering  from  neglect  and 
ill  treatment,  girls  just  springing  into  womanhood  living 
indiscriminately  in  the  same  apartment  with  men  of  all 
ages  and  of  all  colors;  babes  left  so  destitute  of  care  and 
nourishment  as  to  be  fitted  only  for  a  jail  or  hospital  in 
after  years  if  they  escape  the  blessing  of  an  early  grave." 
In  many  localities  the  Committee  found  many  of  the 
apartments  so  destitute  even  of  light  as  to  render  it  an 
impossibility  to  read  a  newspaper,  even  though  at  noon 
time.  TPurther,  "in  the  houses  visited  by  the  Committee 
sights  were  presented  to  them  alike  startling  and  pain- 
ful to  behold.  Young  faces  haggard  with  want  and  sick- 
ness and  bearing  that  peculiar  look  of  premature  old  age 
imparted  by  early  sin  gazed  at  them  from  every  corner; 
misery  and  vice  in  their  most  repulsive  features  met  them 
at  every  step.  Scarcely  an  apartment  was  ftee  from  sick- 
ness and  disease,  and  the  blighting  curse  of  drunkenness 
had  fallen  upon  almost  every  family.  Here  and  there 
might  be  found,  it  is  true,  some  attempt  at  cleanliness, 
some  display  of  a  love  of  home,  some  evidences  of  indus- 
try and  sobriety  with  their  natural  accompaniments  of 
cheerfulness  and  good  health,"  "But  these,"  the  Com- 


10 

mittee  say,  "in  some  instances  were  families  that  had  not 
long  been  inhabitants  of  the  neighborhood  in  which  they 
lived,  the  demoralization  and  ruin  apparent  all  around 
had  not  had  time  to  do  their  work  on  them.  It  is  to  be 
feared  the  miasmal  air  will  creep  into  their  existence  un- 
dermining the  sturdy  constitutions  and  prostrating  its 
victims  on  a  bed  of  sickness;  health  failing  them,  want 
will  follow,  and  then  must  come  crowding  rapidly  upon 
them  neglect  of  home,  neglect  of  children,  uncleanliness, 
drunkenness  and  crime."  / 

J 

NEGLECT  AND  GREED  THE  REAL  CAUSE  OF  BAD 
CONDITIONS. 

The  Committee  says:  "  This  .is  no  fancy  sketch,  no 
picture  of  the  imagination.  It  is  a  stern  reality,  enacted 
every  day  amid  luxury  and  wealth,  the  natural  and  fear- 
ful result  of  the  rapacity  of  the  landlord  in  every  crowded 
city  unrestrained  by  conscience,  and  wholly  unchecked  by 
legislation." 

(These  words,  written  forty-four  years  ago,  sum  up  the 
causes  of  all  our  bad  conditions  in  New  York  City  to-day. 
The  overcrowding,  the  poverty,  the  disease,  the  crime  and 
vice,  met  with  in  New  York  in  1900,  products  of  our  tene- 
ment house  system,  have  not  come  to  us  because  of  the 
narrow  shape  of  Manhattan  Island  or  of  the  lack  of  rapid 
transit^as  has  been  claimed  by  superficial  students  of  the 
subject  for  many  years, [but  because  of  the  primary  neg- 
lect of  the  habitations  of  the  poor  of  this  city  at  a  period 
when  they  could  have  been  cared  for  in  time7\ 

Had  the  Committee  done  nothing  else  beyond  making 
this  statement  of  the  conditions  of  that  time,  our  debt  to 
them  would  have  been  very  great. 

After  setting  forth  in  most  striking  language  the  con- 
ditions found  by  them  in  their  very  brief  inspection  of  the 
tenant  houses  of  New  York  City,  and  urging  upon  the 
Legislature  the  importance  of  continuing  the  work 
throughout  the  summer,  so  that  a  proper  and  well-consid- 


11 

ered  plan  of  reform  might  be  matured,  the  Committee 
pointed  out  that  "  to  the  wretched  condition  of  the  poor  of 
New  York  can  he  traced  an  enormous  proportion  of  the 
hurdens  imposed  upon  the  property  holders  of  the  city, 
and  upon  the  State  at  large,  for  the  support  of  paupers  and 
criminals.  From  the  foul  atmosphere  of  the  tenement 
houses  spring  the  infectious  diseases  that  so  frequently 
spread  through  the  city,  sweeping  away  their  thousands 
of  victims,  and  not  confining  their  depreciations  to  the 
class  in  which  they  originate,  but  penetrating  into  the  lo- 
calities occupied  by  the  wealthy,  and  rendering  desolate 
many  a  household.  Hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  paupers 
pour  into  the  hospitals  stricken  by  disease  contracted  in 
those  hot-beds  of  pestilence,  the  tenement  houses,  and 
from  them  drunkenness  mainly  receives  its  victims,  for 
what  will  sooner  drive  a  man  to  the  intoxicating  cup  than 
the  absence  of  all  attraction  and  all  comforts  from  his 
home?"  "  It  is  no  idle  assertion  to  say  that  a  reform  by 
which  the  condition  of  the  homes  of  the  poor  could  be  im- 
proved would  remove  a  large  proportion  of  the  criminals 
from  our  prisons  and  the  paupers  from  our  almshouses/' 
The  practical  results  which  the  Committee  hoped  to 
secure  through  legislative  action,  and  to  which  they  stated 
their  inquiries  would  be  directed  through  the  summer, 
were: 

1.  Ventilation  and  cleanliness  in  tenement  houses  so 
that  the  public  heatth  might  be  protected,  the  spread  of 
infectious  diseases  checked,  and  the  expenses  of  the  public 
hospitals  and  almshouses  decreased. 

2.  An  enactment  against  the  renting  of  underground 
apartments  or  cellars  as  tenements. 

3.  Eegulations  as  to  the  building  of  halls  and  stairways 
in  houses  occupied  by  more  than  three  families,  so  as  to 
insure  easy  egress  in  case  of  fire. 

4.  The  prevention  of  prostitution  and  incest,  by  pro- 
viding that  only  a  sufficient  number  of  rooms,  or  a  room 
properly   divided    into    separate   apartments,   should  be 
rented  to  families;  and  by  prohibiting  subletting. 


12 

5.  The  prevention  of  drunkenness  by  providing  to  every 
man  a  clean  and  comfortable  home. 

It  is  extremely  instructive  to  find  that  the  Committee 
had  become  so  interested  in  the  tenement  house  question, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  failure  of  the  Legislature  to 
continue  their  work  throughout  the  summer,  the  members 
of  the  Committee,  of  their  own  accord,  upon  their  own 
responsibility  and  at  their  own  personal  expense,  decided 
to  continue  this  work,  rendering  to  the  next  Legislature, 
in  March,  1857,  their  report  and  conclusions.  This  docu- 
ment constitutes  the  report  of  the  first  legislative  commis- 
sion of  inquiry  on  this  subject  in  America.  Nothing  that 
has  been  written  since  that  time  has  been  of  greater  value, 
nor  have  any  later  investigations  of  a  similar  kind  been 
more  efficient,  nor  have  they  developed  much  further  in- 
formation or  knowledge,  on  the  whole,  upon  this  subject. 

LICENSING  OF  TENEMENT  HOUSES  URGED. 

If  space  allowed  me  I  would  quote  at  great  length 
from  this  document  because  the  conclusions  reached  by 
the  Commission  are  so  sound,  the  descriptions  of  the  con- 
ditions they  discovered  are  so  able,  and  the  whole  paper 
couched  in  language  that  is  not  only  forcible  but  convinc- 
ing. Accompanying  their  report,  they  submitted  to  the 
Legislature  a  bill  entitled  "  An  Act  to  Improve  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Laboring  Poor  Residing  in  Tenant  Houses  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  to  Establish  a  Board  of  Home 
Commissioners  in  said  City,  and  for  other  Purposes." 
The  bill  provided  for  a  Board  of  Commissioners  to  consist 
of  three  citizens  of  New  York  who  "  should  have  power 
at  any  time  between  sunrise  and  sunset  to  visit,  or  cause 
to  be  visited,  any  tenant  house  ordinarily  used  as  a  com- 
mon dwelling  or  lodging  for  three  or  more  families  tran- 
siently occupying  the  same;  and  also  to  have  power  to 
enter  and  inspect,  and  properly  examine  all  rooms,  courts, 
alleys,  yards  and  cellars  used  for  such  transient  tenancy 
as  aforesaid."  If  in  the  opinion  of  such  Board,  or  any 
two  of  the  Commissioners,  after  personal  inspection,  any 


13 

such  tenant  house,  rooms  or  premises  was  found  to  he  un- 
fit for  the  purpose  of  residence  by  reason  of  dampness, 
darkness,  dirt,  filthiness  or  too  low  ceilings,  ill  ventila- 
tion, being  underground,  or  any  other  good  cause,  the 
Commission  was  authorized  to  serve  a  notice  upon  the 
owner,  agent,  or  lessee  of  the  property,  directing  the 
premises  to  be  put  in  proper  order  and  condition  within  a 
specified  time.  And  it  was  further  provided  that  such 
house,  rooms  or  premises  should  be  deemed  to  be  unten- 
antable and  forbidden  to  be  occupied  for  dwelling  or  lodg- 
ing purposes  until  such  directions  or  orders  of  said  Com- 
missioners be  complied  with.  The  Commissioners  were 
further  required  to  keep  registered  lists  of  the  different 
tenant  houses  in  each  ward,  of  the  number  of  tenants  and 
lodgers  occupying  each  of  said  houses,  designating  the  age, 
sex,  color  and  occupation  or  employment  of  each  person; 
also  the  number  of  children  between  the  ages  of  six  and 
fourteen  not  in  attendance  on  any  school,  and  of  the  occu- 
pation of  such  children,  and  the  Commissioners  were  em- 
powered to  examine  witnesses  upon  oath  in  reference  to 
this  matter.  They  were  further  empowered  to  keep  a 
record  of  all  lottery  or  policy  shops,  grocery  stores,  liquor 
stores,  etc.,  etc. 

Among  their  other  powers,  they  were  authorized  to 
direct  and  compel  the  owner,  agent,  lessee  or  keeper  of 
any  tenant  house  to  thoroughly  cleanse  all  the  rooms, 
passages,  stairs,  floors,  windows,  doors,  walls,  ceilings, 
etc.,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Commission;  and  the  owners, 
or  lessees  of  tenant  houses  were  prohibited  from  sub-letting 
any  part  of  their  premises  except  with  the  consent  of  the 
Board  of  Home  Commissioners.  No  compensation  was  to 
be  paid  to  the  Commissioners  for  their  services,  but  their 
expenses  were  to  be  paid,  and  they  were  to  be  provided 
with  a  proper  clerical  force,  and  were  required  to  render  a 
report  to  the  Legislature  each  year  as  to  the  work  accomp- 
lished by  them. 

This  carefully  thought-out  scheme  for  a  permanent 
body  whose  sole  duty  should  be  the  care  and  regulation  of 


14 

the  tenant  houses  of  the  city,  here  enunciated  for  the  first 
time,  was  unfortunately  not  adopted  by  the  Legislature. 
There  has  never  been  made  any  recommendation,  which 
would  have  so  reached  the  root  of  the  whole  problem  as 
this  proposition  of  the  Assembly  Investigation  Committee 
of  1856.  It  was,  in  effect,  a  provision  for  the  licensing  or 
strict  sanitary  control  of  the  tenement  houses. 

Since  this  report  was  made  forty-three  years  have 
elapsed.  Conditions  in  many  respects  are  the  same  in  New 
York  City  as  they  were  in  1857,  only  the  extent  of  them 
has  increased  tenfold.  I  believe  that  the  real  solution  of 
the  tenement  house  problem  will  be  found  in  the  licensing 
of  tenement  houses,  and  predict  that  until  that  step  is 
taken,  we  can  expect  little  real  benefit  to  result. 

Interest  in  this  question  aroused  spasmodically  every 
ten  years  and  then  allowed  to  flag  is  not  calculated  to 
secure  beneficial  results  or  much  progress  toward  improved 
conditions.  The  subject  is  sufficiently  large  and  difficult 
to  require  the  constant  and  continuous  thought  and  study 
of  the  best  minds. 

Although  the  labors  of  this  Commission  did  not  produce 
immediate  results,  the  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor,  which  had  waged  its  fight  for  better 
tenements  since  1846,  did  not  give  up  the  battle.  From 
1857  to  1864  they  continued  their  campaign  of  education, 
from  time  to  time  calling  the  attention  of  the  community 
to  the  condition  of  affairs,  petitioning  both  the  Legislature 
and  the  Common  Council  to  enact  laws  and  ordinances  to 
remedy  the  evil  conditions  which  had  been  growing 
steadily  worse  year  by  year. 

THE    MOVEMENT   OF  \  864— THE    COUNCIL   OF 
HYGIENE. 

Not,  however,  till  the  first  fruits  of  thirty  years  of 
municipal  neglect  had  been  gathered  in  the  terrible  "  draft 
riots  "  of  1863,  did  the  community  become  aroused  to  the 
dangers  of  the  evils  which  surrounded  them.  When  in 


15 

those  troublous  times,  during  our  Civil  War,  the  tene- 
ments poured  forth  the  mobs  that  held  fearful  sway  in 
the  city,  during  the  outbreak  of  violence  in  the  month  of 
July,  then,  for  the  first  time,  did  the  general  public  realize 
what  it  meant  to  permit  human  beings  to  be  reared  under 
the  conditions  which  had  so  long  prevailed  in  the  tenement 
houses  in  New  York  City, , 

Mr.  N.  P.  Willis,  a  leading  journalist,  writing  at  that 
time,  thus  describes  the  impression  made  upon  him  by  the 
sight  of  these  persons.  "  The  high  brick  blocks  of  closely 
packed  houses  where  the  mobs  originated  seemed  to  be 
literally  hives  of  sickness  and  vice.  It  was  wonderful  to 
see  and  difficult  to  believe  that  so  much  misery,  disease 
and  wretchedness  could  be  huddled  together  and  hidden 
by  high  walls,  unvisited  and  unthought  of  so  near  our  own 
abodes.  Lewd  but  pale  and  sickly  young  women, 
scarcely  decent  in  their  ragged  attire,  were  impudent,  and 
scattered  everywhere  in  the  courts.  What  numbers  of 
these  poorer  classes  are  deformed,  what  numbers  are  made 
hideous  by  self -^neglect  and  infirmity!  Alas,  human  faces 
look  so  hideous  with  hope  and  self-respect  all  gone,  and 
familiar  forms  and  features  are  made  so  frightful  by  sin, 
squalor  and  debasement!  To  walk  the  streets  as  we 
walked  them  in  those  hours  of  conflagration  and  riot  was 
like  witnessing  the  day  of  judgment,  with  every  wicked 
thing  revealed,  every  sin  and  sorrow  blazingly  glared 
upon,  every  hidden  abomination  laid  before  hell's  expec- 
tant fire." 

Heeding  this  warning,  some  few  months  later  in  the 
spring  of  1864,  the  leading  citizens  of  New  York  formed 
themselves  into  what  was  known  as  the  "Citizens'  Asso- 
ciation" for  the  purpose  of  taking  steps  to  improve  the 
sanitary  condition  of  the  city.  The  alarmingly  high  death 
rate  of  New  York  at  that  time  (there  being  one  death  in 
every  35  of  the  inhabitants)  became  a  subject  of  the  most 
careful  thought  and  investigation.  Accordingly,  the  Citi- 
zens' Association  formed  a  sub-committee  known  as  the 
Council  of  Hygiene  and  Public  Health,  which  included 


16 

the  leading  physicians  of  the  city  at  that  time.  This 
Council  of  Hygiene  organized  in  the  month  of  April  in  the 
year  1864,  and  at  once  determined  to  undertake  a  complete 
and  thorough  sanitary  investigation  of  the  entire  city. 
The  city,  which  at  that  time  was  coincident  with  Man- 
hattan Island,  was  divided  into  29  districts;  an  experienced 
physician  was  appointed  as  sanitary  inspector  in  each 
ward,  and, during  a  period  of  nine  months  the  most  thor- 
ough, complete  and  scientific  sanitary  inspection  ever 
made  of  any  city  was  made  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
This  investigation  embraced  a  description  of  the  character 
of  the  soil  throughout  each  district,  the  number  of  build- 
ings, the  purposes  for  which  they  were  used,  whether 
business  buildings,  churches,  schools,  dwellings  or  tene- 
ment houses,  etc.;  whether  built  of  brick,  stone,  iron  or 
wood;  the  character  of  the  streets,  how  paved,  whether 
provided  with  sewers,  etc.  The  " tenant  houses"  were  a 
subject  of  special  investigation  in  every  district;  the  most 
notorious  ones  were  fully  described,  not  only  as  to  their 
construction,  but  as  to  the  character  of  tfre  people  living 
in  them,  the  sickness  prevailing  in  them,  the  death  rate  of 
them,  etc.,  including  nearly  every  conceivable  detail.  In 
addition  to  these  investigations  there  were  recorded  the 
number  of  vacant  lots,  the  number  of  liquor  stores, 
brothels,  stores  for  the  sale  of  food,  the  number  of  stables, 
the  influence  of  stables  upon  disease,  the  prevalence  of 
preventable  diseases  in  the  districts,  infantile  diseases  and 
mortality,  and  the  excessive  crowding  of  houses  upon  the 
lots.  Never  was  a  piece  of  social  or  sanitary  work  better 
done. 

In  addition  to  these  detailed  reports,  the  Council  of 
Hygiene  had  prepared  for  them  a  map  showing  the  nature 
of  the  soil  throughout  the  entire  city,  as  well  as  the  under- 
ground streams  and  water-courses.  This  monumental 
work  of  General  Egbert  L.  Viele  has  been  of  incalculable 
value  to  the  city.  There  was  also  presented  a  map  of  the 
entire  Fourth  Ward  showing  the  exact  arrangement  of 
every  building  in  each  block  throughout  the  Ward,  giving 


17 

the  amount  of  land  occupied,  the  shape  of  the  building, 
the  height  in  stories,  the  number  of  families  occupying  it, 
the  number  of  persons,  also  whether  certain  contagious 
diseases  had  prevailed  there  during  that  year,  and  indicat- 
ing also  the  location  of  the  different  liquor  stores  in  each 
neighborhood.  Thanks  to  the  foresight  of  Dr.  Ezra  R. 
Pulling,  Inspector  of  this  District,  we  thus  have  to-day  a 
means  of  comparing  conditions  as  they  were  in  1864  with 
conditions  as  they  exist  now  in  1900.  Besides  these  maps 
and  diagrams,  the  report  published  by  the  Council  of 
Hygiene  contains  a  numberjof  photographs  showing  some 
of  the  worst  tenement  conditions  at  that  time,  and  also 
some  of  the  other  sanitary  evils  which  then  existed.  This 
report  constitutes  a  volume  of  more  than  360  pages,  and 
is  unquestionably  the  most  comprehensive  and  valuable 
study  of  this  kind  that  has  ever  been  made. 

THE  FIRST  TENEMENT  HOUSE  LAW-J867. 

As  a  result  of  the  disclosures  made  by  the  Council  of 
Hygiene  in  1865  came  the  first  legislative  action  in  regard 
to  tenement  houses  in  this  country.  The  first  step  was 
the  establishment  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Health  in 
1.866,  and  one  year  later,  in  1867,  the  enactment  of  the 
tenement  house  law.;  This  act  after  defining  a  tenement 
house  as  "  Any  house,  building,  or  portion  thereof  which 
is  rented,  leased,  let,  or  hired  out  to  be  occupied,  or  is 
occupied,  as  the  home  or  residence  of  more  than  three 
families  living  independently  of  one  another,  and  doing 
their  own  cooking  upon  the  premises,  or  by  more  than  two 
families  upon  a  floor,  so  living  and  cooking  and  having  a 
common  right  in  the  halls,  stairways,  yards,  water  closets 
or  privies,  or  some  of  thern^"  provided  that  no  building 
should  be  used  as  a  tenement  house  unless  ever}r  sleeping 
room  had  a  ventilator  or  transom  window  of  an  area  of  3 
square  feet  over  the  door  connecting  with  the  adjoining 
room  or  with  the  outer  air;  that  every  such  house  should 
be  provided  with  a  proper  fire  escape  to  be  approved  by  the 
Building  Inspector;  that  the  roof  over  the  main  hall  should 


18 

be  provided  with  a  proper  ventilator;  and  that  it  should  be 
kept  in  good  repair  and  not  allowed  to  leak,  and  that  all 
stairs  should  be  provided  with  proper  banisters;  also  that 
every  house  should  be  provided  with  good  and  sufficient 
water-closets  or  privies,  and  that  there  should  not  be  less 
than  1  to  every  20  occupants,  and  that  where  there  was  a 
sewer  in  the  street  in  front  of  such  a  house,  the  privies 
or  closets  should  be  connected  with  the  sewer  ;  that  no 
cesspool  should  be  allowed  in  connection  with  a  tene- 
ment house  unless  where  it  was  unavoidable;  that  the 
yards  of  all  new  tenement  houses  should  be  graded  and 
drained,  and  connected  with  the  sewer;  that  no  basement 
or  cellar  rooms  should  be  occupied  without  a  permit  from 
the  Board  of  Health,  and  that,  even  then,  such  rooms 
should  not  be  occupied  unless  7  feet  in  height  from 
the  floor  to  the  ceiling,  and  also  1  foot  of  the  height  above 
the  surface  of  the  ground  adjoining  the  same,  nor  unless 
there  was  an  open  area  properly  drained,  2  feet  6  inches 
wide,  extending  along  the  front  of  the  room,  nor  unless 
the  room  had  an  external  window  opening  of  at  least  9 
square  feet.  It  was  further  provided  that  no  underground 
room  should  be  occupied  for  sleeping  purposes  without  a 
written  permit  from  the  Board  of  Health.  All  tenement 
houses  were  also  required  to  be  provided  with  proper 
receptacles  for  garbage  and  other  refuse,  and  the  storage 
of  combustible  material  was  prohibited,  as  was  the  keeping 
of  animals,  except  dogs  and  cats.  All  tenements  were 
further  required  to  be  kept  free  from  the  accumulation  of 
dirt  and  filth  and  garbage  at  all  times.  The  name  and 
address  of  the  owner  of  every  tenement  house  was  also 
required  to  be  posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  each  build- 
ing. The  health  officers  were  to  have  free  access  to  such 
buildings  at  all  times,  and  the  Board  of  Health  was 
authorized  to  have  vacated  buildings  that  were  unfit  for 
habitation  by  reason  of  being  infected  with  disease  or 
likely  to  cause  sickness  among  the  occupants,  or  dangerous 
from  want  of  repair.  The  law  further  provided  that 
where  there  was  a  front  and  rear  building  to  be  erected 


19 

on  the  same  lot,  there  should  be  a  clear,  open  space  be- 
tween the  buildings  if  they  were  one  story  high,  of  10 
feet;  15  feet,  if  they  were  two  stories  high;  20  feet,  if  they 
were  three  stories  high;  and  25  feet,  if  they  were  more 
than  three  stories  high;  also  that  at  the  rear  of  every  new 
tenement  house  there  should  be  a  clear  open  space  of  10 
feet  between  it  and  any  other  building,  but,  unfortunately, 
discretion  was  given  to  the  Board  of  Health  to  modify 
these  requirements  as  to  the  amount  of  space  when  they 
saw  fit.  The  law  also  provided  that  every  habitable  room 
should  be  at  least  8  feet  high,  except  rooms  in  attics,  and 
that  every  habitable  room  should  have  at  least  one  window 
connected  with  the  external  air,  or,  over  the  door  a  venti- 
lator leading  into  the  hall,  or  into  another  room  having 
connection  with  the  external  air;  also  that  the  total  area 
of  windows  in  every  room  communicating  with  the  ex- 
ternal air  should  be  at  least  one- tenth  of  the  superficial 
area  of  the  room;  also  that  every  habitable  room  of  a  less 
area  than  100  square  feet  which  did  not  communicate 
directly  with  the  external  air  and  did  not  have  an  open 
fire  place  should  be  provided  with  a  separate  ventilating 
flue.  Every  new  tenement  house  was  required  also  to 
have  a  chimney  or  open  fire  place  running  through  every 
floor  of  the  building,  and  for  each  set  of  rooms.  New 
tenements  were  also  required  to  have  proper  receptacles 
for  ashes  and  rubbish,  and  running  water  was  to  be  fur- 
nished at  one  or  more  places  in  the  house  or  in  the  yard. 
Cellars  were  required  to  be  cemented  so  as  to  be  water 
tight,  and  the  halls  on  each  floor  were  required  to  be  so 
arranged  as  to  open  directly  to  the  outer  air.  A  violation 
of  the  act  was  made  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  a  fine 
of  not  less  than  $10  or  more  than  $100,  or  by  imprison- 
ment for  not  more  than  ten  days  for  each  day  that  the 
violation  continued,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprison- 
ment, in  the  discretion  of  the  Court. 

The  Board  of  Health  was  also  given  power  to  make 
further  regulations  as  to  cellars  and  as  to  ventilation. 

During  the  same  year  an  important  amendment  to  the 


20 

existing  building  laws  of  the  city  was  passed,  and  in  it 
were  requirements  relating  to  tenement  houses.  These 
concerned  themselves  chiefly  with  the  method  of  construc- 
tion of  such  buildings  with  regard  to  dangers  from  fire. 
Among  other  things,  it  was  provided  that  no  front  and 
rear  tenements  should  be  erected  on  the  same  lot  unless 
they  were  both  fireproof  throughout;  also,  that  every 
building  of  such  a  character  should  be  provided  with  a 
proper  fire  escape;  that  the  hall  partitions  from  cellar  to 
roof  should  be  built  of  brick  not  less  than  12  inches  thick; 
that  the  floor  beams  should  be  of  iron,  and  that  the  stairs 
should  be  fireproof.  It  was  further  required  that  where 
the  first  floor  of  such  a  building  was  used  for  business  pur- 
poses of  any  kind,  the  first  floor  should  be  constructed 
fireproof,  with  iron  beams  and  brick  flooring,  and  that  all 
coal  bins  and  wood  bins  in  the  cellars  of  such  houses  should 
be  built  of  fireproof  material. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  summary  of  the  provisions  of 
the  law  that,  while  many  important  questions  had  been 
provided  for,  the  framers  of  the  law  had  unfortunately 
lost  sight  of  the  main  feature  of  the  tenement  house  prob- 
lem, i.  e.,  they  had  not  enacted  a  provision  restricting  the 
percentage  of  the  lot  permitted  to  be  occupied  by  such 
buildings.  This  was  a  most  serious  defect  in  the  law,  as 
was  also  the  careless  phrasing  of  the  provision  requiring  a 
space  of  10  feet  to  be  left  at  the  rear  of  tenement  houses. 
The  law  was  so  worded  that  this  space  was  to  be  left 
between  the  rear  of  a  new  tenement  house  and  any  other 
building;  the  result  was  that,  where  there  was  no  build- 
ing in  existence  immediately  behind  the  lot  owned  by  the 
tenement  house  builder,  he  could  build  his  building  up  to 
the  entire  lot  limit.  Not  until  twelve  years  later,  in  1879, 
was  this  defect  in  the  law  remedied,  by  providing  that 
there  should  be  a  space  of  10  feet  between  the  rear  of 
every  new  tenement  house  and  the  rear  line  of  the  lot 
upon  which  the  tenement  was  built.^ 

When  one  considers  that  there  were,  in  186Y,  15,000 
tenement  houses  erected  before  the  passage  of  any  tene- 


21 

ment  house  law,  without  regard  to  the  safety  or  health  of 
the  occupants,  one  begins  to  realize  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  which  confronted  the  newly  organized  Board  of 
Health.  The  reports  of  the  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor  for  the  following  five  years  show 
a  decided  improvement  in  the  tenement  houses  of  the  city, 
especially  in  regard  to  cellar  dwellings  and  to  the  general 
sanitary  condition  of  buildings,  the  Sanitary  Police  being 
able  to  enforce  greater  cleanliness  than  had  heretofore 
existed.  While  the  new  law  had  remedied  certain  defects, 
and  had  to  a  certain  extent  improved  existing  tenement 
houses,  yet  it  soon  became  evident  that  it  did  not  meet 
the  conditions  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  good  types  of 
buildings  among  those  newly  erected. 

In  1871  we  find  the  following  statement  in  the  report 
of  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor  for  that  year:  "  The  tenant  house  system  might  be 
indefinitely  enlarged  upon  but  space  forbids.  Though 
greatly  improved  in  late  years.,  it  is  still  the  disgrace  and 
curse  of  the  city,  that  half  of  the  inhabitants  live  in  this 
class  of  houses,  from  which  proceeds  three-fifths  of  the 
crime  and  three-fourths  of  the  mortality.  If  we  would 
abate  these  evils,  the  wretched  domiciliary  conditions  of 
the  occupants  of  these  tenements  must  be  improved." 

THE   MOVEMENT   OF    J879— MR.   WHITE'S  MODEL 
TENEMENTS* 

Between  this  time  and  1877  little  attention  was  given 
to  the  tenement  house  problem,  except  in  the  regular  work 
of  the  Board  of  Health  arid  the  city  Building  Depart- 
ment. 

In  1877  Mr.  Alfred  T.  White,  of  Brooklyn,  having  seen 
the  model  tenements  of  Sir  Sidney  Waterlow's  Industrial 
Dwellings  Company  in  London,  became  imbued  with  the 
idea  that  the  best  way  in  which  he  could  benefit  the 
working  people  of  New  York  City,  or  of  his  own  City 
of  Brooklyn,  was  by  providing  them  with  decent,  com- 
fortable homes.  He  accordingly  built  his  well-known 


22 

"  Home  Buildings''  in  Brooklyn  upon  plans  similar  to 
those  of  the  Improved  Industrial  Dwellings  Company  of 
London,  and  one  year  later,  directly  opposite,  built  an 
entire  block  of  similar  model  tenements,  with  a  large  park 
or  court-yard  in  the  center.  From  the  time  they  were 
built  these  tenements  have  always  been  a  success,  both 
socially  and  financially.  (Wide  publicity  was  given  to  this 
extraordinarily  successful  experiment  of  Mr.  White's,  the 
result  being  that  great  interest  was  stimulated  in  the 
tenement-house  problem.  It  was  well  that  such  interest 
was  aroused  at  this  time,  as  the  public  attention  had  been 
allowed  to  flag  during  the  previous  ten  years.  Mr.  White 
lectured  before  the  Social  Science  Association,  sermons 
were  preached  in  the  different  churches  upon  the  subject, 
and  the  public  press  gave  the  greatest  amount  of  atten- 
tion to  this  important  topic. 

The  educational  work  undertaken  by  the  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  in  1846,  and 
carried  on  so  successfully  by  them  until  1871,  was  now 
taken  up  by  another  charitable  society,  namely,  the  State 
Charities  Aid  Association,  formed  in  3873.  This  Society, 
through  its  Standing  Committee,  "  On  the  Elevation  of 
the  Poor  in  Their  Homes,"  in  1877,  again  called  attention 
to  the  need  of  reform,  and  leading  architects  of  the  city 
were  asked  to  send  in  plans  for  improved  tenement  houses, 
so  that  the  best  intelligence  of  the  community  might  be 
got  to  work  upon  the  problem.  It  appears  that  at  this 
time  there  were  in  New  York  City  25,000  tenement  houses, 
and  that  the  excessive  mortality  and  sickness  in  the  city 
at  that  time  was  held  to  be  mainly  due  to  the  defective 
system  of  tenement-house  life. 

On  the  6th  of  December  a  conference  of  those  interested 
in  the  subject  was  called  by  this  Society,  at  which  Mr. 
Alfred  T.  White  described  to  them  the  very  successful 
results  accomplished  by  his  model  tenements  in  Brooklyn, 
which  had  earned  7-J-  per  cent.,  net,  during  the  first  year 
of  their  existence;  also  the  successful  results  accomplished 
in  London  by  the  different  model  tenement  house  com- 


23 

panies  there  were  presented.  At  the  meeting  a  Special 
Committee  was  appointed  to  "  Consider  the  question  of 
improved  houses  for  the  poor  in  New  York  City,  with 
authority  to  secure  the  incorporation  of  a  company  under 
the  best  legal  advice  to  erect  such  houses.  "  This  Com- 
mittee rendered  a  report  in  April,  1878,  stating  that  they 
had  not  found  it  desirable  to  recommend  the  building  of 
model  tenements  at  that  time,  but  that  they  did  recommend 
a  thorough  investigation  and  discussion* of  existing  tene- 
ments, hoping  that  something  might  be  done  toward  re- 
forming them,  and  believing  that  it  was  much  to  be  desired 
that  public  opinion  should  be  enlightened  as  to  the  evils 
and  dangers  resulting  to  the  whole  city  from  the  existence 
of  many  of  the  present  tenements,  and  the  urgent  need  of 
a  more  rigid  enforcement  of  the  laws  already  existing  con- 
cerning them,  and,  further,  a  more  thorough  legislation 
that  might  up-root  the  evil,  instead  of  merely  repressing 
its  growth. 

This  Committee  held  frequent  meetings  and  made  per- 
sonal inspection  of  many  of  the  tenement  houses  in  the 
city,  employing  a  special  agent  to  make  a  detailed  exami- 
nation of  certain  typical  tenement  houses. 

In  January  of  the  following  year,  a  sub-committee  was 
appointed  to  induce  the  clergy  of  the  city  to  take  up  the 
question  of  tenement  house  reform  and  to  preach  on  this 
subject  on  a  Sunday  to  be  agreed  upon.  The  Sunday  of 
February  23,  18Y9,  was  set  aside  as  "Tenement  House 
Sunday,"  and  the  leading  ministers  of  the  city  delivered 
addresses  upon  the  evils  of  the  tenement  house  system 
and  the  necessity  for  ref ormA  It  was  decided  by  the  State 
Charities  Aid  Association  that  a  large  public  meeting  of  all 
classes  was  desirable  to  bring  home  to  the  community  the 
importance  of  this  subject.  Accordingly  such  a  meeting 
was  held  in  Cooper  Union  on  February  28th,  many  of 
New  York's  leading  citizens  being  present  and  speaking. 
At  this  meeting  Mayor  Cooper,  who  presided,  appointed  a 
sub-committee  of  nine  members,  known  as  the  "  Mayor's 
Committee,"  for  the  purpose  of  devising  measures  to  carry 


24 

tenement  house  reform  into  effect.  The  following  gentle- 
men were  members  of  this  Committee:  Messrs.  D.  Willis 
James,  Frederick  W.  Stevens,  W.  W/Astor,  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  R.  T.  Auchmuty,  James  Gallatin,  Henry  E. 
Pellew,  F.  D.  Tappen  and  C.  P.  Daly. 

The  Committee  rendered  its  report  about  one  month 
later,  making  it  public  on  March  25th.  They  proposed  two 
plans,  one  charitable,  the  other  commercial,  recommend- 
ing the  formation  of  a  company  to  build  model  tenement 
houses  upon  a  business  basis,  similar  to  the  tenements  so 
successfully  built  and  managed  by  Mr.  Alfred  T.  White, 
in  Brooklyn.  They  further  recommended  radical  changes 
in  the  existing  tenement  house  law,  and  it  is  extremely 
interesting  to  find  that  they  strongly  urged  a  provision 
calling  for  the  licensing  of  tenement  houses,  the  very 
same  provision  which  had  been  so  eloquently  urged  by 
the  First  Legislative  Investigating  Commission  in  1856, 
twenty-three  years  previously.  This  important  and  desir- 
able clause,  however,  was  stricken  out  by  the  Legislature, 
and  real  tenement  house  reform  was  again  postponed 
indefinitely. 

As  a  result  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Committee 
of  Nine,  the  Improved  Dwellings  Association  was  formed 
with  a  capital  of  $300,000.  Mr.  W.  Bayard  Cutting  was 
elected  President  of  this  Association,  and  Mr.  Samuel  D. 
Babcock,  Treasurer.  The  Association  was  strictly  a  com- 
mercial enterprise,  but  with  dividends  limited  to  5  per 
cent.  Several  lots  of  land  were  purchased  on  First 
avenue  from  Ylst  to  72d  streets  and  an  excellent  group  of 
buildings,  somewhat  similar  in  plan  to  Mr.  White's  Brook- 
lyn buildings,  was  erected.  These  are  still  in  good  con- 
dition to-day,  twenty-one  years  later,  and  have  paid  in  all 
that  time,  regularly  5  per  cent,  dividends,  besides  reserv- 
ing a  slight  amount  for  a  depreciation  fund.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Nine  also  recommended  the  formation  of  a  per- 
manent society  to  carry  on  the  work  of  tenement  house 
reform,  and  the  New  York  Sanitary  Reform  Society  was 
thus  incorporated  with  Mr.  James  Gallatin  as  president. 


25 

THE  NEW  TENEMENT  HOUSE  LAW-J879. 

Of  greater  importance,  however,  than  either  of  these 
steps  were  the  changes  in  the  tenement-house  law  accom- 
plished as  a  result  of  this  agitation.  For  the  first  time  the 
percentage  of  lot  permitted  to  be  occupied  by  a  new  tene- 
ment house  was  limited,  the  new  law  requiring  that  no 
new  tenement  house  should  occupy  more  than  65  per 
centum  of  the  lot.  Unfortunately,  however,  a  clause  was 
inserted  giving  the  Board  of  Health  permission  in  special 
cases  to  modify  this  provision.  Had  not  this  unfortunate 
discretionary  clause  been  inserted,  there  would  have  re- 
sulted real  reform  in  the  character  of  the  tenement  houses 
erected  in  this  city.  The  result  of  the  discretionary  clause/ 
was,  as  it  has  always  been  in  New  York — it  practically 
nullified  the  whole  effect  of  the  lawT;  and  in  a  few  years 
the  Board  of  Health  was  found  to  be  permitting  new 
tenements  to  occupy  as  much  as  85,  and  even  90,  per 
centum  of  the  lot. 

The  new  law  also  remedied  the  defect  of  the  former, 
in  reference  to  the  amount  of  space  to  be  left  at  the  rear 
of  a  tenement  house,  putting  it  into  clear,  legal  verbiage. 
At  the  same  time,  the  act  established  thirty  sanitary 
policemen  under  the  supervision  of  the  Board  of  Health, 
and  created  a  tenement  house  fund  of  $10,000  to  be  appro- 
priated annually  and  to  be  spent  by  the  Board  of  Health 
for  the  sanitary  inspection  of  tenement  houses.  The  law 
also  wisely  provided  that  no  room  in  a  tenement  house 
should  be  used  for  sleeping,  unless  it  had  at  least  one  win- 
dow of  a  size  of  12  square  feet  opening  directly  on  the 
public  street  or  yard,  but  again,  unfortunately,  the  Board 
of  Health  was  given  discretionary  power  in  this  respectj 
it  being  added,  u  unless  sufficient  light  and  ventilation 
shall  be  otherwise  provided  in  a  manner  approved  by  the 
Board  of  Health, "jthe  result  of  which,  was  to  practically 
nullify  this  provision^  The  other  main  features  of  the 
law  oif  1867  were  re-enacted. 

Coincident  with  this  agitation  for  tenement  house  re- 
form started  by  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  in 


26 

1877  was  a  similar  movement  carried  on  by  the  Associa- 
tion for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  which,  in 
1878,  took  up  again  the  work  that  it  had  abandoned  in 
1871;  in  a  series  of  admirable  reports  and  pamphlets, 
calling  attention  to  the  great  importance  of  reform  in  the 
dwellings  of  the  poor,  nor  did  it  confine  itself  to  this  ad- 
ditional work  of  describing  existing  conditions,  but 
started  also  a  more  active  personal  inspection  of  the  tene- 
ment houses  of  the  city,  sending  complaints  to  the  Board 
of  Health  of  violations  of  the  law,  and  doing  everything 
in  its  power  to  compel  the  authorities  to  secure  the  proper 
enforcement  of  the  statutes. 

This  work  they  continued  off  and  on  from  1878  until 
1884,  the  time  of  the  next  large  agitation  for  tenement 
house  reform. 

THE  TENEMENT  HOUSE  COMPETITION,  J879— THE 
"  DUMB-BELL  "  PLAN. 

In  December  of  1878,  Mr.  Henry  O.  Meyer,  at  that 
time  the  proprietor  of  the  newspaper  known  as  the  San- 
itary Engineer,  and  who  was  much  interested  in  this 
movement,  in  connection  with  Messrs.  D.  Willis  James, 
F,  B.  Thurber,  Henry  E.  Pellew  and  Kobert  Gordon,  of- 
fered prizes  of  $500  for  the  best  architectural  designs  for 
a  tenement  house  on  an  ordinary  city  lot,  25  feet  wide  by 
100  feet  deep.  A  special  programme  setting  forth  the 
conditions  of  this  architectural  competition  was  printed 
in  the  Sanitary  Engineer,  and  the  following  gentlemen 
were  appointed  a  jury  of  award  to  determine  the  merits 
of  the  different  plans:  Mr.  R.  S.  Hatfield,  architect;  Prof. 
Charles  F.  Chandler,  President  of  the  Board  of  Health; 
Rev.  John  Hall,  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter  and  Robert  Hoe. 

No  less  than  190  architects  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  and  even  from  Canada  and  Great  Britain,  sent  in 
plans  in  competition.  These  plans,  numbering  206,  were 
placed  on  free  exhibition  and  attracted  wide-spread  in- 
terest. Many  of  the  plans  were  reproduced  in  the  papers 


27 

at  that  time,  and  the  Sanitary  Engineer,  the  journal 
which  had  inaugurated  the  competition  and  had  author- 
ized the  prizes,  printed  an  elaborate  series  of  articles,  re- 
producing the  ten  leading  plans  and  describing  the  merits 
of  each  in  detail.  The  first  prize  was  awarded  to  Mr. 
James  E.  Ware,  and  from  this  time  dates  the  introduction 
into  the  tenement  house  system  of  New  York  City  of 
what  is  known  as  the  u  double  decker  dumb-bell  tene- 
ment "  so-called  because  of  the  shape  of  the  outline  of  the 
building,  which  in  the  middle  tapers  in,  very  much  like 
the  handle  of  a  dumb-bell. 

This  is  the  type  of  tenement  house  which  to-day  is  the 
curse  of  our  city.  Many  people  have  pointed  out  that 
what  was  considered  a  model  tenement  in  1879  is  in  1900 
considered  one  of  the  worst  types  of  tenement  houses  ever 
constructed.  Had  these  people  studied  more  thoroughly 
the  movement  for  tenement  house  reform,  they  would  have 
found  that  in  1879  there  was  almost  universal  condemna- 
tion of  the  award  of  the  prize  to  this  type  of  building.  In 
this  connection,  it  is  not  inappropriate  to  quote  part  of  an 
editorial  from  the  New  York  Times,  dated  March  16th, 
1879.  "  The  prizes  offered  by  a  committee  of  gentlemen 
appointed  by  the  proprietor  of  the  Sanitary  Engineer 
have  been  conferred  upon  the  designers  of  tenement  house 
plans.  The  limitations  of  the  designs  by  the  architects 
were  the  shape  of  the  lots,  and  cheapness  of  construc- 
tion; they  were  required  to  plan  a  cheap  house  or  houses 
with  air  and  light  in  the  rooms,  on  a  lot  25  feet  broad,  en- 
closed between  other  houses  and  100  feet  deep.  If  the 
prize  plans  are  the  best  offered,  which  we  hardly  believe, 
they  merely  demonstrate  that  the  problem  is  insoluble. 
The  three  which  have  received  the  highest  prizes  offer 
a  very  slightly  better  arrangement  than  hundreds  of 
tenement  houses  now  do.  They  are  simply  double  houses, 
front  and  rear,  with  the  space  between  occupied  by  halls  and 
water-closets.  They  have  all  the  disadvantages  of  double 
houses,  which  have  so  often  called  forth  sanitary  censure 
and  even  adverse  legislation.  The  only  access  to  air, 


apart  from  the  front,  is  through  the  courts  in  the  small 
spaces  between  the  houses.  To  add  to  their  ill  effects 
each  suite  on  the  second  story  has  apparently  that  old 
nuisance,  a  dark  bedroom,  which,  under  the  present 
arrangement,  is  a  prolific  source  of  fever  and  disease. 
The  only  advantages  offered  apparently  over  the  old  sys- 
tem are  in  the  fireproof  stairways,  more  privacy  of  halls 
and  the  ventilation  of  water-closets.  But  it  may  be  fairly 
said  that  if  one  of  our  crowded  wards  were  built  up  after 
any  one  of  these  prize  designs,  the  evils  of  our  present 
tenement  house  system  would  be  increased  tenfold." 

How  true  this  prophecy  of  1879  .was,  we  to-day  fully 
realize,  for  we  are  reaping  the  evils  of  that  system  of  the 
prize  plan  of  1879,  built  all  over  the  crowded  wards  of 
this  city;  and,  in  truth,  the  evils  that  threatened  the  city 
in  1879  have  been  increased  tenfold.  It  is  this  plan  which 
has  produced  a  system  of  tenement  houses  unknown  to 
any  other  city,  which  has  produced  the  evil  of  the  "air 
shaft,"  a  product  solely  of  New  York,  and  one  which 
makes  our  housing  conditions  the  worst  in  the  world. 

After  this  movement  of  1879  had  accomplished  a 
change  in  the  existing  law  and  the  building  of  two  model 
tenements,  those  interested  in  the  problem  apparently  re- 
laxed their  efforts,  feeling  that  what  they  had  sought  to 
accomplish  had  been  accomplished.  Nothing  of  import- 
ance was  done  in  this  movement  from  that  year  until 
1884,  except  that  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Con- 
dition of  the  Poor  still  continued  its  inspection  of  existing 
tenement  houses,  and  its  system  of  sending  complaints  to 
the  Board  of  Health,  trying  to  spur  that  body  into  a  more 
energetic  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

SECOND  LEGISLATIVE  COMMISSION—  \  884. 

In  1884,  Professor  Felix  Adler,  of  the  Society  for 
Ethical  Culture,  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  upon  the 
terrible  condition  of  the  tenement  houses  at  that  time; 
his  own  work  and  the  work  of  members  of  his  society 


29 

among  the  poor  in  the  city,  having  given  him  an  insight 
into  the  wretched  condition  of  their  dwellings.  This  series 
of  lectures  created  great  interest  in  the  public  press,  and 
the  community  became  thoroughly  aroused  to  the  neces- 
sity for  reform  in  this  direction.  Accordingly,  a  bill  was 
introduced  in  the  Legislature  and  passed  on  June  2,  1884, 
appointing  a  Commission  "  to  examine  and  to  investigate 
and  inquire  into  the  character  and  condition  of  tenement 
houses,  lodging  houses  and"  cellars  in  the  City  of  New 
York."  This  Commission  was  composed  of  the  following 
gentlemen:  Alexander  Shaler,  Joseph  W.  Drexel,  S.  O. 
Vanderpoel,  Felix  Adler,  Oswald  Ottendorfer,  Moreau 
Morris,  Anthony  Reichardt,  Joseph  J.  O'Donohue,  Abbot 
Hodgman,  Charles  F.  Wingate  and  William  P.  Ester- 
brook. 

The  Commission  made  an  investigation  of  a  number  of 
the  tenement  houses  in  New  York,  from  June  of  that  year 
until  the  following  January,  making  in  its  report  to  the 
Legislature  twenty  distinct  recommendations.  These 
included: 

The  abolition  of  all  privy  vaults;  a  change  in  the  law 
extending  the  requirements  for  new  tenement  houses  to 
all  old  buildings,  altered  to  be  used  as  tenement  houses; 
that  water  should  be  supplied  upon  each  floor  of  every 
tenement  house;  that  every  tenement  house  occu- 
pied by  eight  families  or  more  should  have  a  janitor 
residing  upon  the  premises;  that  all  cellars  should 
be  concreted;  that  rooms  and  halls  in  all  new  tenement 
houses  should  have  direct  light,  and  communication 
with  the  external  air;  that  the  definition  of  a  tenement 
house  should  be  so  amended  as  to  include  all  houses  occu- 
pied by  three  families  or  more;  that  the  misuse  of  water 
closets  by  the  tenants  should  be  deemed  a  misdemeanor; 
that  the  Board  of  Health  be  required  to  make  a  semi-an- 
nual inspection  of  all  the  tenement  houses  in  the  city: 
that  the  number  of  sanitary  policemen  should  be  increased 
from  thirty  to  forty,  and  their  duties  limited  entirely  to 
the  inspection  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses;  that  the 


30 

name  and  address  of  the  owner  of  every  tenement  house 
should  be  filed  in  the  Department  of  Health;  that  there  be 
set  aside  a  special  fund  for  the  use  of  the  Board  of  Health; 
that  a  registrar  of  statistics  for  the  Board  of  Health  be 
appointed;  that  the  Board  of  Health  be  required  to  make 
an  annual  report  of  its  work  to  the  Mayor;  and  that  a 
permanent  Tenement  House  Commission,  composed  of  the 
Mayor  and  the  Heads  of  the  Department  of  Health,  Public 
Works,  Buildings  and  Street  Cleaning,  be  appointed  to 
meet  once  each  year  to  consider  the  desirability  of  change 
in  the  tenement  house  laws;  also  that  certain  streets  in 
the  city  be  opened  up  so  as  to  do  away  with  Mulberry 
Bend,  a  notorious  "slum"  district;  and  that  free  public 
baths  be  established  by  the  city  throughout  the  tenement 
house  districts;  and  that  electric  lights  be  placed  in  all 
streets  of  such  quarters. 

The  Commission  published  a  report  of  some  235  pages 
containing  not  only  these  recommendations,  with  the 
reasons  for  them,  but  also  the  results  of  a  sanitary  inspec- 
tion of  nearly  1,000  tenement  houses  carried  on  under 
their  direction. 

The  Commission,  however,  did  not  take  up  the  larger 
phases  of  the  problem,  believing  that  the  time  allowed 
them  for  such  a  study  was  not  sufficient,  and  believing 
that  the  Legislature  would  appoint  a  further  commission 
to  undertake  this  work. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  the  Commission  of 
1884  did  not  make  a  more  thorough  study  of  the  tenement 
house  question  and  of  existing  conditions.  They  gave  al- 
most no  attention  to  the  buildings  erected  since  1879,  but 
contented  themselves  with  the  examination  of  old  types 
of  tenement  houses. 

During  the  same  year,  the  Association  for  Improving 
the  Condition  of  the  Poor  took  advantage  of  the  increased 
public  interest  in  the  subject  and  published  in  their  annual 
report,  in  a  somewhat  popular  form,  a  detailed  description 
of  some  of  the  worst  tenement  houses  in  the  city, 
illustrating  these  with  pictures. 


31 

THE  LAW  AMENDED  IN  1887. 

The  recommendations  made  by  the  Tenement  House 
Commission  of  1884  to  the  Legislature  did  not,  however, 
result  in  legislation  until  1887,  when  the  Tenement  House 
Law  was  amended  in  several  important  particulars,  the 
main  change  being  the  increasing  of  the  number  of 
sanitary  police  from  30  to  45;  15  of  these  to  spend  their 
time  in  the  inspection  of  tenement  houses  exclusively. 
The  new  law  also  provided  for  a  permanent  Tenement 
House  Commission,  to  meet  once  in  each  year  to  discuss 
the  needs  of  tenement  houses;  the  Commission  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  Mayor  and  the  Heads  of  the  Departments  of 
Health,  Public  Works  and  Street  Cleaning.  The  law  also 
provided  that,  in  all  tenement  houses  where  there  was 
more  than  one  family  on  a  floor  and  the  halls  did  not  open 
directly  to  the  outer  air,  such  buildings  should  not  be 
used.  Among  the  other  changes  accomplished  was  a  pro- 
vision that  there  should  be  one  water  closet  for  every 
fifteen  occupants,  instead  of  one  for  every  twenty  oc- 
cupants, as  under  the  previous  law.  Also,  the  owners  of 
all  tenement  houses  were  required  to  file  their  names  and 
addresses  annually  in  the  Board  of  Health,  and  the  Board 
of  Health  was  required  to  make  a  regular  semi-annual  in- 
spection of  every  tenement  house  in  the  city.  Probably 
the  most  important  feature  of  the  law  was  the  extending  of 
the  provision  in  relation  to  new  tenement  houses,  as  to  the 
percentage  of  lot  permitted  to  be  occupied  to  all  old  build- 
ings that  might  be  altered  to  be  used  as  tenement  houses. 

From  1884  until  1894  nothing  was  done  in  the  move- 
ment for  tenement-house  reform  beyond  the  usual  work 
of  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
Poor  in  sending  complaints  of  sanitary  abuses  in  certain 
tenement  houses  to  the  Board  of  Health  for  their  attention. 

THE  WORK  OF  JACOB  A.  RIIS. 

Any  record  of  the  movement  for  tenement-house 
reform  in  New  York,  which  left  out  of  account  the  work 
of  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Riis,  would  be  sadly  defective.  For  over 


32 

twenty  years  Mr.  Riis  has  continually  waged  his  "  battle 
with  the  slum."  Beginning  in  1880  as  a  newspaper 
reporter  stationed  at  Police  Headquarters,  his  work  led 
him  frequently  into  the  tenement  house  districts  where 
he  gained  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  conditions.  Since 
that  time  Mr.  Riis  has  continuously  urged  the  necessity 
of  tenement  house  reform,  and  of  the  betterment  of  all 
the  conditions  of  life  for  the  working  people  of  this  city. 
His  articles  in  the  magazines  and  newspapers,  especially 
his  well-known  books  "  How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  "  The 
Children  of  the  Poor,"  and  "A  Ten  Years'  War,"  have 
probably  done  more  to  educate  the  general  public  on  this 
question  than  the  writings  of  any  other  person.  To  his 
active  efforts  are  due  the  tearing  down  of  the  worst  slum 
New  York  City  ever  saw,  the  old  "  Mulberry  Bend,"  and 
also  the  destruction  of  a  number  of  unsanitary  rear  tene- 
ments. It  was  the  active  influence  of  Mr.  Riis  and  his 
work  more  than  anything  else  which  led  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Tenement  House  Commission  of  1894. 

THE  THIRD  LEGISLATIVE  COMMISSION— J  894, 

In  1894  one  of  the  New  York  newspapers,  the  Press, 
printed  a  series  of  articles  upon  the  condition  of  the  tene- 
ments, and  caused  to  be  introduced  in  the  Legislature  a 
bill  authorizing  the  Governor  to  appoint  a  commission  to 
inquire  into  all  the  phases  of  the  tenement  house  problem. 
Through  the  efforts  of  the  Press  this  bill  became  a  law, 
and  the  following  Commissioners  were  appointed:  Eichard 
Watson  Gilder,  Chairman;  W.  D'H.  Washington,  Cyrus 
Edson,  Roger  Foster,  Solomon  Moses,  George  B.  Post  and 
John  P.  Schuchman,  Edward  Marshall,  the  City  Editor  of 
the  Press,  through  whose  efforts  this  legislation  had  been 
accomplished,  being  appointed  Secretary  and  executive 
officer  of  the  Commission.  The  Commission  organized  in 
May  of  that  year  and  entered  upon  an  active  and  vigorous 
investigation  of  the  tenement  houses  of  the  city  through- 
out the  summer  and  fall,  giving  especial  attention  to  cellar 


33 

dwellings,  examining  in  all  8,441  houses.  The  Commission 
published  in  1895  a  voluminous  and  elaborate  report  of 
some  650  pages  showing  the  results  of  their  investigation. 
The  report  touches  upon  the  questions  of  immigration, 
density  of  population,  overcrowding,  different  types  of 
tenement  house  plans,  questions  of  fire-proof  construction, 
death  rates,  etc. ,  pays  especial  attention  to  those  tenement 
houses  known  as  rear  tenements,  i.  e.,  buildings  built  on 
the  rear  of  the  lot  behind  a  front  tenement  house,  with  an 
intervening  courtyard  of  about  25  feet  between;  also  the 
subordinate  public  questions  of  the  need  of  public  parks 
in  tenement  neighborhoods,  the  need  of  dock  parks  or 
recreation  piers,  the  need  of  public  baths,  the  questions  of 
rentals,  of  improved  tenement  houses  erected  by  philan- 
thropic or  quasi-philanthropic  societies,  the  work  of  the 
previous  Commission  appointed  in  1884,  the  evils  of  prosti- 
tution in  tenement  houses,  questions  of  plumbing  and 
sanitation;  and  paid  special  attention  to  the  great  danger 
arising  from  tenement  fires,  making  minute  examination 
of  the  fires  that  occurred  while  the  Commission  was  in 
existence,  and  taking  a  great  deal  of  testimony  on  this 
subject,  and  on  other  subjects  connected  with  the  different 
phases  of  the  tenement  house  problem.  The  report  con- 
tains a  number  of  illustrations  of  different  types  of  tene- 
ment house  plans,  also  photographs  of  certain  bad  tene- 
ment conditions  found  by  the  Commission,  as  well  as 
many  interesting  maps  and  charts. 

The  Commission  made  to  the  Legislature  the  following 
recommendations  : 

1.  That  the  law  be  perfected  so  as  to  give  to  the  Board 
of  Health  unquestioned  power  to  condemn  and  destroy 
tenement  houses  unfit  for  human  habitation. 

2.  That  the  percentage  of  lot  allowed  to  be  covered  by 
new  tenement  houses  be  limited  to  70  per  cent.  ;  also  that 
no  more  air  shafts  be  covered  over  by  the  roof.     That  the 
first  floor  of  all  new  tenement  houses  should  be  fireproof 
and  contain  no  openings  to  the  cellar ;  that  every  water 
closet  should  have  a  window  to  the  outer  air,  and  that  the 


34 

floor  of  all  water  closet  compartments  should  be  made 
watertight. 

3.  That  certain  dangerous  trades  be  prohibited  in  tene- 
ment houses  so  as  to  prevent  danger  from  fire,  the  Com- 
mission having  found  that  a  great  many  tenement-house 
fires  were  caused  by  the  boiling  of  fat  in  basements. 

4.  That  the  ceilings  of  all  habitable  basements  should 
be  at  least  2  feet  above  the  ground. 

5.  That  no  wall  paper  should  be  permitted  in  tenement 
houses. 

6.  That  all  dark  hallways  should  be  lighted  by  artificial 
light. 

7.  That  at  least  400  cubic  feet  of  air  should  be  provided 
for  every  adult,  and  200  cubic  feet  of  air  for  every  child 
under  twelve  years. 

8.  That  the  use  of  tenement  houses  for  lodging  houses 
or  stables,  or  for  storage  of  rags,  should  be  prohibited. 

9.  That  the  discretionary   powers    of    the  Board   of 
Health  should  be  limited. 

10.  That  the  law  in  reference  to  the  filing  of  the 
owner's  name  in  the  Board  of  Health  should  be  perfected. 

11.  That  the  number  of  sanitary  inspectors  of    the 
Board  of    Health  should    be  increased  by  fifteen,   and 
increasing  the  number  of  sanitary  police  by  five. 

12.  That  not  less  than  two  small  parks  should  be  laid 
out  within  three  years  in  certain  districts  of  the  lower 
East  side. 

.13.  That  no  school  buildings  should  be  erected  unless 
the  same  were  provided  with  a  proper  out-door  play- 
ground. 

14.  Urging  the  adoption  of  rapid  transit  facilities. 

15.  The  establishment  by  the  city  of  free  fully  equipped 
public  baths  all  the  year  around. 

16.  The  establishment  by  the  city  of  drinking  fountains 
and  public  lavatories  in  tenement-house  districts. 

17.  That  the  system  of  lighting  the  streets  by  elec- 
tricity be  extended  to   the  tenement- house  districts  as 
rapidly  as  possible. 


35 

18.  That  the  streets  in  the  tenement-house  districts  be 
paved  with  asphalt. 

19.  That  a  thorough  inquiry  be  made  as  to  the  sanitary 
condition  of  some  of  the  public  schools  in  the  city,  and 
the  sufficiency  of  school  accommodations  in  certain  dis- 
tricts.     Also  that  the  Kindergarten  system  be  largely 
increased. 

20.  Making  the  punishment  for  prostitution  in  the 
tenement  houses  more  severe. 

21.  Abolishing  the  permanent  Tenement  House  Board, 
composed  of  the  Mayor  and  heads  of  the  five  city  depart- 
ments, appointed  under  the  Act  of  1887. 

THE  TENEMENT  HOUSE  ACT  OF  J895* 

As  a  result  of  the  work  of  this  Commission,  the  Legis- 
lature passed  a  new  tenement  house  law  in  1895,  which 
included  among  its  provisions  some  of  the  changes  recom- 
mended by  the  Commission.  A  great  number  of  them, 
however,  were  not  adopted,  the  changes  in  the  law  being 
a  slightly  increased  security  against  fire  in  the  construc- 
tion of  new  tenement  houses,  and  a  most  unfortunate 
change  in  the  portion  of  the  law  in  relation  to  the  per- 
centage of  lot  permitted  to  be  occupied.  The  law,  since 
1891,  limited  the  amount  to  65  per  centum  of  the  lot,  and 
had  given  the  Building  Department  no  discretion  whatso- 
ever to  increase  this  amount;  the  Tenement  House  Com- 
mission, unfortunately,  not  being  familiar  with  the  law, 
believed  that  the  Building  Department  possessed  such  dis- 
cretion, because  they  found  them  exercising  it;  (the  result 
was  that  they  inserted  in  the  new  law  a  clause  that  the 
Commissioners  of  Buildings  might  permit  as  much  as  75 
per  cent,  of  the  lot  to  be  occupied  in  special  cases,  the 
result  of  which  has  been  that  every  case  has  become  '*  a 
special  case,"  and  all  new  tenement  houses  are  permitted 
to  occupy  75  per  cent,  of  the  lot. 

The  recommendations  of  the  Commission  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  two  small  parks  for  the  lower  East  side  were 


36 

adopted,  and  the  parks  are  now  in  existence,  to  the  great 
gain  of  the  city.  Also  the  clause  requiring  the  establish- 
ment of  a  suitable  playground  in  all  new  public  schools 
was  adopted,  as  were  the  recommendations  for  a  system 
of  recreation  piers  along  the  river.  The  city  now  possesses 
five  of  these  piers. 

While  the  Commission's  labors  did  not  result  in  any 
great  improvement  in  the  character  of  the  tenement 
houses  erected  in  New  York  City,  yet  the  collection  of 
facts  presented  in  their  report  did  most  certainly  succeed 
in  creating  an  interest  in  this  most  important  subject. 

THE  MODEL  TENEMENT  COMPETITION  OF  J896- 
THE  CITY  AND  SUBURBAN  HOMES  COMPANY. 

The  following  year,  in  1896,  the  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  through  its  Depart- 
ment of  Dwellings,  called  on  March  3d  and  4th  a  series 
of  conferences  to  consider  the  advisability  of  building 
improved  tenement  houses  in  New  York.  As  a  result  of 
these  conferences,  the  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Com- 
pany was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  building  model  tene- 
ment houses  in  New  York  as  a  business  investment. 
Many  leading  men  of  the  city  became  stockholders  of  this 
company,  and  the  work  of  building  model  tenements  was 
a  few  months  later  begun  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  E. 
K.  L.  Gould,  who  some  years  previously  had  conducted 
for  the  Department  of  Labor  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment a  comprehensive  inquiry  into  the  question  of 
the  housing  of  'the  working  people  in  different  parts  of 
Europe. 

A  special  architectural  competition  was  held  for  the 
best  type  of  tenement  house  plans,  and  an  excellent  type 
of  building  was  finally  chosen.  One  million  dollars  was 
subscribed  as  the  capital  of  the  new  enterprise,  and  a 
splendid  group  of  buildings  was  erected  at  217  to  233  West 
68th  street  and  214  to  220  West  69th  street.  There  are  two 
sets  of  buildings,  one  back  of  the  other,  with  an  open 


37 

court-yard  20  feet  wide  and  about  150  feet  long  between 
them.  One  group  of  buildings  occupies  a  space  225  feet 
long  by  100  feet  deep,  equivalent  to  nine  city  lots,  and  the 
other  building  occupies  a  space  200  feet  long  by  100  feet 
deep,  equivalent  to  eight  ordinary  city  lots.  The  buildings 
are  divided  into  a  number  of  apartments  containing  two 
rooms,  three  rooms,  four  rooms  and  five  rooms,  and  are 
so  arranged  that  every  room  has  direct  light  and  air  either 
from  the  street  or  yard,  or  from  large  open  court-yards 
facing  the  street,  of  a  width  of  18  feet  and  of  a  depth  of 
60  feet,  or  upon  a  large  court-yard  in  the  center,  of  an  area 
of  529  square  feet.  The  amount  of  space  occupied  by  halls 
and  stairs  and  partitions  is  minimized,  thus  securing  a 
larger  area  available  for  floor  space.  The  buildings  were 
designed  by  Mr.  Ernest  Flagg,  the  well-known  New  York 
architect,  who  has  given  much  thought  to  the  study  of 
scientific  tenement  house  plans,  and  the  buildings  illus- 
trate most  admirably  his  contention  that  the  secret  of 
tenement  house  planning  lies  in  constructing  a  building 
more  of  the  shape  of  a  square,  than  of  a  long  parallelo- 
gram. Every  apartment  is  a  home  in  itself;  every  room 
has  quiet,  good  light  and  air  and  good  ventilation;  the 
staircases  and  stair  walls  of 'the  buildings  are  entirely  fire- 
proof; the  halls  and  stairways  are  well  lighted  and  steam- 
heated;  in  the  two  houses  are  nine  separate  entrances  from 
the  street  and  every  entrance  has  two  stairways  and  two 
dumb  waiters;  the  partitions  between  the  different 
dwellings  are  deafened;  every  apartment  is  supplied  with 
its  own  private  water-closet,  and  most  of  the  apartments 
have  a  small  private  hall;  the  buildings  are  furnished  with 
most  modern  conveniences,  such  as  stationary  wash-tubs 
and  sinks  in  the  kitchen,  hot  water,  gas  ranges,  wood  and 
coal  closets,  and  laundries  and  bathrooms  on  the  first  floor. 
All  rents  are  payable  weekly.  The  rents  are  about  the 
same  as  the  rents  of  ordinary  tenement  houses  in  the  same 
neighborhood  and  average  for  two  rooms  $6.80  a  month; 
for  three  rooms,  $11.40  a  month;  for  four  rooms,  $14.60  a 
month.  The  buildings  are  occupied  by  the  better  class  of 


38 

working  people,  respectable  mechanics,  letter  carriers, 
railroad  employes,  coachmen,  policemen,  etc.,  the  Com- 
pany preferring  to  cater  to  the  best  element  among  the 
workingmen. 

The  enterprise  has  been  a  distinct  success,  both  from  a 
social  and  financial  point  of  view,  the  profit  on  these 
buildings  having  been  a  little  over  5  per  cent,  during  the 
first  year. 

The  Company  has  also  built  a  number  of  small  houses 
in  the  suburbs  for  persons  of  small  salaries  who  desire  to 
have  homes  of  their  own  rather  than  to  live  in  the  city. 
It  has  also,  during  the  past  year,  completed  a  second 
group  of  buildings  at  First  avenue,  64th  and  65th  streets, 
similar  in  plan  to  the  first  buildings,  except  that  a  few 
slight  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  interior 
arrangement. 

A  third  group  of  buildings  is  now  being  planned  and 
will  be  shortly  erected,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  Company  will  extend  its  operation  for  some  time 
to  come  by  erecting  new  buildings  in  different  parts  of  the 
city. 

THE  MOVEMENT  OF  J899-THE  CHARITY  ORGAN- 
IZATION SOCIETY. 

In  the  spring  of  1898,  the  writer,  having  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  been  impressed  with  the  belief  that  bad  tene- 
ment house  conditions  were  the  cause  of  most  of  the 
problems  in  our  modern  cities,  presented  to  the  Charity 
Organization  Society  of  the  City  of  New  York,  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  a  plan  for  the  formation  of  a  society 
which  should  continually  seek  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  tenement  houses  : 

1.  By  securing  wise  remedial  legislation  in  reference 
to  new  buildings,  and  by  preventing  the  enactment  of 
bad  legislation. 

2.  By  securing  the  enforcement  of   existing  laws  in 
relation  to  tenement  houses. 


39 

3.  By  stimulating    the  building  of   model  tenement 
houses  on  a  large  scale,  and 

4.  By  gradually  improving  old  bad  tenements  in  the 
city  by  altering  them  to  suit  the  needs  of  the  tenants. 

Some  few  months  later  the  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety decided  to  take  up  this  work,  and  a  standing  com- 
mittee of  the  Society,  known  as  the  "  Tenement  House 
Committee  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society,"  was 
formed  for  that  purpose.  The  Committee  was  composed 
of  the  following  gentlemen:  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Holls, 
Chairman;  Felix  Adler,  Constant  A.  Andrews,  Robert  W. 
de  Forest,  Edward  T.  Devine,  John  Vinton  Dahlgren, 
Ernest  Flagg,  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  George  B.  Post, 
Jacob  A.  Riis  and  I.  N.  Phelps  Stokes.  The  writer  has 
had  the  privilege  of  acting  as  Secretary  and  Executive 
officer  of  this  Committee  since  its  existence. 

The  members  of  the  Committee  devoted  themselves 
during  the  first  six  months  to  the  work  of  framing  a 
series  of  tenement  house  ordinances,  which  should  be 
supplemental  to  the  existing  tenement  house  laws,  em- 
bodied in  the  Greater  New  York  Charter?;  As  they  had 
been  advised  that  it  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  local 
authorities  to  enact  ordinances  which  should  conflict  with 
the  provisions  of  the  existing  law,  the  Committee  were 
necessarily  obliged  to  limit  themselves  to  only  such  recom- 
mendations. They  accordingly  submitted  to  the  Munici- 
pal Building  Code  Commission  a  series  of  fifteen  tenement 
house  ordinances,  with  a  statement  setting  forth  the  rea- 
sons for  them,  and  the  advantages  to  be  gained  thereby. 

The  proposed  ordinances  provided  that  in  all  new  tene- 
ment houses  no  air  shaft  should  be  less  than  6  feet  wide  in 
any  part,  nor  less  than  150  square  feet  in  superficial  area; 
that  no  new  tenement  house  should  exceed  six  stories  in 
height  unless  it  was  fireproof;  that  all  living  rooms  in 
tenement  houses  should  contain  at  least  600  cubic  feet  of 
air  space;  that  for  every  new  tenement  house  containing 
twenty  families  or  more,  there  should  be  provided  at  least 
one  bath  tub  or  shower  bath  in  a  separate  apartment  for 


40 

the  use  of  the  tenants,  and  where  there  were  more  than 
twenty  families  in  any  such  house,  there  should  be  pro- 
vided additional  bath  tubs;  that  every  tenement  house 
thereafter  erected  or  altered,  four  stories  or  more  in  height, 
should  have  the  first  story  made  fireproof;  that  the  walls 
of  all  tenement  houses  thereafter  erected  should  be  carried 
up  3  feet  6  inches  above  the  roof  on  all  four  sides,  so  that 
the  roof  might  be  used  as  a  playground;  that  no  wooden 
building  of  any  kind  whatever  should  be  placed  on  the  same 
lot  with  a  tenement  house  within  the  fire-limits  of  the  city; 
that  it  should  be  mandatory  upon  the  Corporation  Counsel 
or  his  assistant  to  immediately  file  a  Us  pendens  in  the 
County  Clerk's  office  upon  receipt  from  the  Department  of 
Buildings  for  prosecution  of  every  violation  of  the  tenement 
house  laws,  ordinances  or  regulations;  that  in  every  new 
tenement  house  the  stairway  connecting  the  cellar  with  the 
first  floor  should  not  be  located  in  whole  or  in  part  under- 
neath the  stairs  leading  from  the  first  story  to  the  upper 
stories;  that  no  closet  should  be  constructed  underneath 
any  staircase  in  any  tenement  house;  that  every  new 
tenement  house  and  every  existing  tenement  house  in 
which  the  halls  were  not  light  enough  in  the  daytime 
on  all  floors  to  permit  an  ordinary  person  to  easily  read 
without  aid  of  artificial  light,  should  have  every  door  lead- 
ing from  the  public  halls  to  rooms  provided  with  ground 
glass  panels  of  an  area  of  not  less  than  6  square  feet;  that 
in  every  new  tenement  house  all  interior  shafts  should  be 
fireproof  and  provided  with  fireproof  self-closing  doors  to 
all  openings.  It  was  also  asked  that  the  following  provi- 
sions of  the  existing  building  laws  be  continued  in  effect, 
viz.,  that  the  bulkhead  doors  of  all  tenement  houses  should 
at  no  time  be  locked,  but  might  be  fastened  on  the  inside 
with  a  hook  or  bolt;  that  in  all  tenement  houses  where 
wooden  stud  partitions  rest  over  each  other,  the  space  be- 
tween the  studs  should  be  filled  in  solid  with  fireproof 
material  to  prevent  the  spread  of  fire  from  floor  to  floor; 
that  the  cellar  floor  of  every  tenement  house  should  be 
concreted  with  concrete  not  less  than  3  inches  thick;  and 


41 

that  where  a  kitchen  range  or  stove  was  placed  within  12 
inches  of  a  wooden  stud  partition  the  woodwork  should 
be  cut  away  and  filled  in  with  fireproof  material. 

These  ordinances  were  printed  in  a  small  pamphlet, 
made  public  in  June,  1899,  and  attracted  widespread  com- 
ment in  the  daily  newspapers  in  this  city,  and  in  fact  all 
over  the  country.  The  criticisms  were  uniformly  favor- 
able. These  recommendations  were  also  officially  ap- 
proved by  the  New  York  Chapter  of  the  American  Insti- 
tute of  Architects,  by  the  Architectural  League  of  New 
York  City,  by  the  Association  for  Improving  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Poor,  the  Children's  Aid  Society,  the  Univer- 
sity Settlement,  the  College  Settlement,  the  Nurses'  Set- 
tlement, and  by  most  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  this 
city,  including  many  of  the  heads  of  the  City  Depart- 
ments. 

None  of  these  recommendations  was  adopted  by  the 
municipal  authorities. 

Being  convinced  that  no  real  progress  in  tenement 
house  reform  was  to  be  made  unless  the  whole  commu- 
nity was  aroused  to  a  knowledge  of  existing  conditions,  the 
Tenement  House  Committee  set  itself  to  work  to  prepare 
for  the  public  such  a  statement  of  tenement  house  needs 
that  the  most  unconcerned  could  no  longer  neglect  taking 
action  looking  toward  the  amelioration  of  the  living  con- 
ditions of  the  working  people  in  New  York. 

THE  TENEMENT  HOUSE  EXHIBITION  OF  1900. 

With  this  end  in  view  a  plan  for  a  tenement  house 
exhibition  was  prepared  in  the  fall  of  1899,  and  the  Com- 
mittee devoted  its  entire  time  from  then  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  year  in  preparing  this  work.  The 
Exhibition  was  held  in  New  York  City  in  a  large  building 
on  Fifth  avenue  for  a  period  of  two  weeks,  and  in  that 
brief  time  was  viewed  by  over  ten  thousand  persons  of  all 
classes,  from  the  millionaire  to  the  poorest,  unskilled 
laborer. 


42 

The  Exhibition  included  five  models,  over  1,000  photo- 
graphs, over  100  maps,  and  many  charts,  diagrams  and 
tables  of  statistics.  It  was  most  comprehensive  in  its 
scope,  including  a  study  of  tenement  house  conditions  in 
New  York  City  at  the  present  time,  a  study  of  model 
tenements  in  America  and  throughout  Europe,  a  study  of 
suburban  tenements  and  working  people's  cottages  both 
in  America  and  Europe,  model  lodging  houses  and  hotels 
for  workingmen  in  America  and  Europe,  and  a  series  of 
studies  of  public  parks,  playgrounds,  libraries,  baths, 
cooking  schools,  etc.  The  Exhibition  also  included  in  its 
study  of  existing  conditions  in  New  York  exhibits  show- 
ing density  of  population,  death  rates  prevailing  in  tene- 
ment districts,  the  distribution  of  nationality  in  the  city, 
charts  showing  overcrowding,  dangers  from  fire,  health 
conditions,  etc. 

During  the  second  week  of  the  Exhibition,  a  series  of 
conferences  was  held  every  evening,  with  leading  special- 
ists discussing  such  different  phases  of  the  tenement  house 
problem  as  "The  Exhibition  and  Its  Meaning,"  "  Model 
Tenements,"  "Improving  Tenements  by  Personal  In- 
fluence," "The  Tenements  and  Poverty,"  "The  Tene- 
ments and  Tuberculosis,"  "  The  People  Who  Live  in  Tene- 
ments," "  The  Duty  of  the  City  to  the  Tenement  Dweller," 
"  The  Tenement  House  Problem  and  the  Way  Out,"  etc. 

This  exhibition  was  the  first  tenement  house  exhibition 
ever  held,  and  marks  a  distinct  step  in  advance  in  the 
treatment  of  the  tenement  house  problem.  Perhaps  one 
of  the  most  interesting  features  of  it  was  the  cardboard 
model  of  an  entire  block  of  tenement  houses  in  the  City  of 
New  York.  To  those  unfamiliar  with  the  state  of  affairs 
in  this  city,  the  conditions  here  presented  are  almost 
beyond  belief.  The  block  chosen  was  one  on  the  East 
side  of  New  York,  being  the  block  bounded  by  Chrystie, 
Forsyth,  Canal  and  Bayard  streets,  comprising  an  area  of 
200  feet  by  400  feet,  or  eighty  thousand  (80,000)  square 
feet.  Nearly  every  bit  of  the  land  was  covered  with  tall 
tenement  houses  six  stories  high.  This  block  on  January 


43 

1,  1900,  contained  39  different  tenement  houses  having 
605  different  apartments  or  sets  of  rooms,  and  housing 
2,781  persons;  of  these  2,315  were  over  5  years  of  age  and 
466  under  5  years.  In  the  block  there  were  263  two-room 
apartments,  179  three-room  apartments,  105  four-room 
apartments,  21  five-room  apartments,  making  a  total  of 
1,588  rooms.  There  were  only  264  water  closets,  and  not 
one  bath  in  the  entire  block,  and  only  40  apartments  were 
supplied  with  hot  water.  The  block  contained-  441  dark 
rooms  having  no  ventilation  to  the  outer  air  whatsoever, 
and  no  light  or  air  except  that  derived  from  other  rooms, 
and  there  were  635  rooms  in  the  block  getting  their  sole 
light  and  air  from  dark,  narrow  "air  shafts."  Duringthe 
past  five  years  there  have  been  recorded  32  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis from  the  block,  and  during  the  past  year  13  cases 
of  diphtheria.  The  records  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  and  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  show  that  dur- 
ing a  period  of  five  years  660  different  families  living  in 
the  block  have  applied  for  charity.  The  rentals  derived 
from  this  block  amount  to  $113,964  a  year.  If  this  were 
an  exceptional  case  and  these  conditions  limited  simply  to 
one  part  of  the  city,  the  question  would  be  serious  enough, 
but  when  one  considers  that  the  block  thus  shown  was 
selected  merely  as  characteristic  of  the  conditions  through- 
out the  City  of  New  York,  and  that  nearly  every  block  is 
similar,  one  begins  to  realize  the  terrible  extent  of  the 
problem. 

The  exhibition  showed  step  by  step  the  different  changes 
that  have  taken  place  in  New  York's  tenement  houses 
since  the  early  days,  and  all  the  evils  of  the  present  tene- 
ment house  system  were  thoroughly  exhibited,  special 
emphasis  being  laid  upon  the  terrible  evils  of  the  dark  un- 
ventilated  "air  shafts"  which  are  the  chief  characteristics 
of  the  present  type  of  buildings,  and  which  have  been  most 
aptly  characterized  as  "culture  tubes  on  a  gigantic  scale." 

The  sunlight  almost  never  penetrates  below  the  top  of 
the  fifth  floor  in  these  shafts.  Bringing  up  children  in  such 
darkness  and  amidst  filthy  odors,  insures  its  inevitable  re- 


44 

suit:  Twenty-five  million  dollars  are  annually  expended  for 
charity  in  the  State  of  New  York.  It  is  a  simple  matter 
to  investigate  the  records  of  our  reformatories,  hospitals, 
dispensaries,  and  institutions  of  similar  kind,  to  find  out 
what  proportion  of  the  patients  and  inmates  come  from 
tenement  houses.  In  New  York,  we  know  that  nearly  all 
are  tenement  house  dwellers.  We  also  know  that  most 
of  our  criminals  are  young  men  between  the  ages  of 
eighteen  and  twenty-five,  and  that  the  majority  of  them 
come  from  large  cities,  the  breeding  places  of  vice  and 
crime. 

POVERTY  AND  DISEASE. 

Another  striking  feature  of  the  tenement  house  exhi- 
bition was  the  series  of  poverty  and  disease  maps  showing 
the  extent  of  poverty  and  disease  in  the  tenement  districts 
of  the  city.  These  maps  showed  on  a  large  scale  each  block 
in  the  tenement  house  district,  indicating  which  buildings 
were  tenement  houses,  and  which,  business  buildings,  or 
used  for  other  purposes.  They  gave  the  street  number  of 
each  building,  the  height  in  stories,  also  the  amount  of 
land  covered,  the  shape  of  the  building  and  the  small 
amount  of  land  left  vacant  for  light  and  air.  The  maps 
were  arranged  in  two  parallel  series,  one  of  "poverty" 
maps,  the  other  "  disease  "  maps.  Upon  the  "  poverty  " 
maps  were  stamped  black  dots,  each  of  which  indicated 
that  five  different  families  from  the  building  had  applied 
for  charity  to  one  of  the  leading  charitable  societies  in  the 
city  within  a  definite  period  of  time.  It  seems  beyond  be- 
lief, yet  it  is  a  fact,  that  there  was  hardly  one  tenement 
house  in  the  entire  city  that  did  not  contain  a  number  of 
these  dots,  and  many  contained  as  many  as  15  of  them, 
indicating  that  75  different  families  had  applied  for  charity 
from  that  house.  Similarly  on  the  "disease  "  maps,  which 
were  placed  directly  below  the  "poverty"  maps,  district 
by  district,  so  that  a  comparative  study  of  them  might 
be  made,  there  were  stamped  black  dots,  each  indicat- 
ing that  from  that  house  there  had  been  reported  to  the 


£< 


45 

Board  of  Health  one  case  of  tuberculosis  within  the  past 
five  years.  While  these  dots  did  not  cover  the  buildings 
to  the  same  extent  as  they  were  covered  in  ttye  "  poverty  " 
maps,  it  was  appalling  to  note  the  extent  of  this  disease; 
nearly  every  tenement  house  had  one  dot  on  it,  and  many 
had  three  and  four,  and  there  were  some  houses  that  con- 
tained as  many  as  twelve;  other  colored  dots  indicated  the 
prevalence  of  typhoid  fever,  diphtheria,  etc.  The  maps 
also  contained  upon  each  block  a  statement  of  the  number 
of  people  living  there,  so  that  the  student  thus  had  oppor- 
tunity of  weighing  all  the  conditions  that  helped  to  pro- 
duce the  epidemics  of  poverty  and  disease.  The  maps  as 
they  appeared  in  the  exhibition  might  well  earn  for  New 
York  City  the  title  of  the  City  of  Living  Death. 

The  exhibition  was  planned  and  developed  to  prove  to 
the  community  the  fact  that  in  New  York  City  the  work- 
man is  housed  worse  than  in  any  other  city  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  pays  more 
money  for  such  accommodations  than  is  paid  elsewhere, 
being  compelled  to  give  more  than  one-fourth  of  his  in- 
come for  rent.  That  this  was  conclusively  proved,  no  one 
who  saw  the  exhibition  could  doubt.  Photographs  illus- 
trating the  worst  housing  conditions  and  typical  housing 
conditions  in  over  fifty  different  large  American  cities 
were  exhibited,  and  there  was  no  city  in  the  United 
States  where  the  workingman  was  not  infinitely  better 
off  in  this  respect  than  he  was  in  New  York. 

The  exhibit  of  model  tenements  included  photographs, 
architectural  plans  and  tables  of  statistics  from  the  very 
many  model  tenement  companies  in  London,  also  exhibits 
of  the  work  carried  on,  both  by  private  corporations  and 
by  the  municipality  in  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Leeds,  Sal- 
ford,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  Paris,  Rouen,  Lyons,  Berlin, 
Dresden,  Leipzig,  Copenhagen,  and  other  European  cities. 
The  tables  of  statistics  were  most  complete,  giving  nearly 
every  item  of  interest  connected  with  such  enterprises, 
from  the  size  of  the  rooms  to  the  character  of  the  tenants 
and  the  amount  of  profit  upon  the  investment. 


46 

The  study  of  model  lodging  houses  showed  the  develop- 
ment of  the  lodging  house  in  New  York  City  from  the 
worst  type  of  lodging  in  the  police  stations  up  to  the  more 
recent  and  admirable  municipal  lodging  house  and  Mills 
Hotels;  similar  work  carried  on  in  London,  Southampton, 
Manchester,  Edinburgh,  Glasgow  and  Copenhagen  was 
also  shown,  as  were  the  very  large  number  of  places 
where  employers  and  private  companies  had  built  model 
small  houses  for  workingmen  in  suburban  districts. 

THE  MODEL  TENEMENT  COMPETITION  OF  J90CX 

In  connection  with  this  exhibition,  the  Tenement 
House  Committee  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society 
authorized  an  architectural  competition  for  the  best  plans 
of  model  tenements,  upon  lots  of  a  size  25  feet  wide  by  100 
feet  deep;  50  feet  wide  by  100  feet  deep:  T5  feet  wide  by 
100  feet  deep,  and  100  feet  wide  by  100  feet  deep,  under 
conditions  applicable  only  to  the  City  of  New  York  at  the 
present  time.  Over  one  hundred  and  seventy  different 
architects  took  part  in  this  competition,  and  the  result 
was  that  many  excellent  plans  were  submitted.  Four 
prizes  were  awarded,  the  first  being  a  prize  of  $500, 
which  was  awarded  to  Mr.  R.  Thomas  Short,  a  New  York 
architect.  The  object  of  this  competition  was  to  arouse 
interest  among  architects  in  the  scientific  planning  of 
tenement  houses,  the  Committee  feeling  that  a  large  part 
of  the  solution  of  the  tenement  house  problem  lay  in  this 
direction. 

The  exhibition  contained  many  other  interesting  and 
instructive  features,  and  created  the  most  widespread 
interest. 

Such  has  been  the  history  of  the  different  movements 
for  housing  reform  in  New  York  from  1834  to  the  present 
time. 


47 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  IMPORTANT  TO  A  PROPER  UNDERSTAND- 
ING OF  THE  TENEMENT  HOUSE  PROBLEM  IN  THE  CITY 
OF  NEW  YORK. 

• 

CHRONOLOGICALLY  ARRANGED. 

1842.  Annual  Report  of  the  Interments  in  the  City  and  County  of 
New  York  for  the  Year  1842,  With  Eemarks  Thereon,  and  a 
Brief  View  of  the  Sanitary  Condition  of  the  City.  Pre- 
sented to  the  Common  Council  by  John  H.  Griscom,  M.  D. , 
City  Inspector.  New  York,  James  Van  Norden,  Printer  to 
the  Board  of  Assistant  Aldermen,  1843.  Document  No.  59. 
(Library,  Academy  of  Medicine,  17  West  43d  Street.) 

1853.  First  Report  of  a  Committee  on  the  Sanitary  Condition  of  the 
Laboring  Classes  in  the  City  of  New  York,  with  Remedial 
Suggestions.  New  York,  John  F.  Trow,  Printer,  1853. 
Pamphlet,  32  pages.  (Published  in  Annual  Report  of  the 
Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor  for 
1853.) 

1857.  Report  of  the  Select  Committee  Appointed  to  Examine  into 
the  Condition  of  Tenant  Houses  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn, 
March  9,  1857.  Assembly  Document  No.  205,  54  pages. 
(State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y.) 

1857.  An  Act  to  Improve  the  Condition  of  the  Laboring  Poor  Resid- 
ing in  Tenant  Houses  in  the  City  of  New  York;  To  Establish 
a  Board  of  Home  Commissioners  in  said  City,  and  for  Other 
Purposes.  Assembly  Bill  No.  568.  (State  Library,  Albany, 
N.  Y.) 

1865.  Report  of  the  Council  of  Hygiene  and  Public  Health  of  the 
Citizens'  Association  of  New  Yerk  upon  the  Sanitary  Con- 
dition of  the  City.  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  360  pages.  A  num- 
ber of  maps,  diagrams  and  illustrations. 

1867.  Report  Relative  to  the  Condition  of  Tenement  Houses  in  the 
Cities  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  Assembly  Document  No. 
156,  34  pages.  (State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y.) 

1884.  Report  of  the  Tenement  House  Commission  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  February  17,  1885.  Senate  Document  No.  36. 
235  pages.  (State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y.) 

1887.  The  Tenement  House  Problem  in  New  York,  January  16,  1888. 
Senate  Document  No.  16.  52  pages. 


48 

^1890.  "How  The  Other  Half  Lives."  By  Jacob  A.  Eiis.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons.  1890.  304  pages — many  illustrations. 

1893.  " Poor  in  Great  Cities."     Charles  Scribner's  Sons.      1895.     400 

pages— many  illustrations. 

-^  1893.  The  Housing  of  the  Poor  in  American  Cities.  By  Marcus  T. 
Reynolds.  American  Economic  Association.  Volume  8. 
Nos.  2  and  3.  132  pages. 

1894.  Report  of  the  Tenement  House  Committee,  as  Authorized  by 

Chapter  479  of  the  Laws  of  1894.  Assembly  Document  No. 
37.  650  pages — many  illustrations,  maps,  charts  and  dia- 
grams. (State  Library,  Albany,  N.  Y.) 

1895.  The  Housing  of  the  Working  People.     By  E.  R.  L.  Gould. 

Eighth  Special  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  461  pages — many  illustrations. 

1899.  A  Ten  Years'  War— An  account  of  the  battle  with  the  slums 
in  New  York.  By  Jacob  A.  Riis.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
267  pages.  Illustrated. 


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